Original articleEpisodic and persistent gun-carrying among urban African-American adolescents
Section snippets
Models of gun-carrying
There is evidence for several explanatory models of adolescents’ gun-carrying. The Protection Model suggests that young people carry weapons, including guns, to protect themselves from assault or robbery. In fact, “protection” is often the most common reason adolescents give for carrying weapons 7, 8. Those who previously have been victimized may view carrying a weapon as their only way to avoid such future victimization. Even without having been victimized, witnessing or fearing violence may
Sample
The sample consisted of 705 African-American high school students from four public high schools in a mid-sized city in the Midwest. Approximately half of the students in the study were female (n = 360) and half were male (n = 345). These data were collected as part of a larger study of students at risk for leaving school before graduation: participating students all had grade point averages of 3.0 or lower and were not listed as developmentally disabled in school records. Trained interviewers
The prevalence of persistent gun-carrying
More than three-quarters of the students in the study never carried a gun (n = 543, 80%). An additional 15% (n = 107) carried a gun episodically, whereas 5% (n = 55) carried a gun persistently throughout high school (Table 2). Gun-carrying varied by gender, with males being more likely than females to carry a gun episodically or persistently (χ2(2) = 39.22, p < .001). Gun-carrying did not vary by socioeconomic status (F(2,679) =.83, p = .44).
Univariate differences in predictor variables
Almost all the predictors in the three models varied
Discussion
About one in four students in this study carried a gun at some point during high school. This disturbingly high figure is consistent with those reported in other studies of African-American urban youths. In one such study, DuRant et al [23] reported that 27% of young people who live in or near public housing had carried a hidden weapon during the previous year. Another study among mostly African-American students in high crime areas in Washington, DC, found that 22% of eighth graders had
Conclusion
In this study, young people who carried guns persistently rather than episodically were more likely to use them against others. Yet our conclusion is that episodic and persistent patterns of gun-carrying differ by a matter of degree rather than being qualitatively distinct phenomena. Specifically, African-American high school students who fight and who sell drugs, are much more likely to carry a gun. Indeed, the large effect sizes of these risk factors suggest that any ninth graders found to be
Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Grant No. DA07484. The views or policies expressed do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The authors wish to thank the students, parents, teachers and administrators who made this study possible. Preparation of the manuscript benefited greatly from the comments of several anonymous reviewers.
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