Changing the Narrative: Using Media to Shift Social Norms of Violence Among Youth in West Louisville

 描述(申请人提供)：青少年暴力是一个严重的公共卫生问题，特别是在经济上处于不利地位的人口、市中心和少数族裔人口负担过重的情况下。故意伤害是肯塔基州10至24岁人群的主要死因，也是全国这一年龄段的第二大死因。令人震惊的是，肯塔基州这个年龄段的黑人男性凶杀率(38.7/10万)是白人男性(3.9/10万)的10倍。在肯塔基州路易斯维尔，巨大的社会和健康差距--包括暴力和相关风险因素--集中在西路易斯维尔(WL)，这是一个经济贫困的城市社区，主要是黑人社区。在公共健康与信息科学学院(SPHIS)的领导下，路易斯维尔大学(UofL)的研究人员提议与范德比尔特大学的研究人员合作，建立UofL青少年暴力预防中心。拟议中心的具体目标包括：1.加强基础设施，以支持路易斯维尔大学预防青少年暴力的研究和实践。2.制定、实施和评估一项社区一级的社会规范运动，利用大众和社交媒体改变西路易斯维尔青年中的暴力行为规范。3.记录社会规范运动的发展和实施情况，以改进在其他环境或社区的复制和可伸缩性。4.评估社区准备情况、社区能力与社区层面社会规范行动实施情况的关系。5.以有意义和可操作的形式向各种相关受众(即社区、地方组织和领导人、预防青少年暴力研究人员和从业人员、学术界同行和政策制定者)传播研究结果。跨学科研究小组提出了一种准实验设计，以检验利用新媒体在社区层面开展为期3年的社会规范运动的有效性，以WL为干预社区，以田纳西州东纳什维尔为对照社区，改变10-24岁青少年的暴力规范，并引入由文化认同驱动的亲社会规范。研究人员和一组社区合作人员将与一家专业广告公司一起规划和设计这项活动，活动将在第二年部署。调查和采访将收集衡量社会规范和暴力行为的因变量(自变量：媒体类型、人口统计数据的活动曝光)的数据，以及来自学校、紧急情况部门和当地警察部门的人口层面的青少年暴力数据，将在人口层面提供严重青少年暴力的变化措施。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Youth violence is a serious public health issue, particularly in the disproportionate burden upon economically disadvantaged, inner city, and minority populations. Intentional injury is the leading cause of death among persons 10 to 24 years of age in Kentucky, and the second leading cause of death for this age group nationally. Alarmingly, Kentucky's homicide rate for this same age group is 10 times higher for Black males (38.7/100,000) than for White males (3.9/100,000). In Louisville, KY, substantial social and health disparities-including violence and related risk factors-are concentrated in West Louisville (WL), an economically disadvantaged, urban, primarily Black community. Led by the School of Public Health & Information Sciences (SPHIS), researchers at the University of Louisville (UofL) propose to establish the UofL Youth Violence Prevention Center, partnering with researchers from Vanderbilt University. The specific aims of the proposed center include: 1. Strengthen the infrastructure to support youth violence prevention research and practice at the University of Louisville. 2. Develop, implement and evaluate a community-level social norming campaign to change the norms of violence among youth in West Louisville using mass and social media. 3. Document the development and implementation of the social norming campaign to improve replication and scalability in other settings or communities. 4. Evaluate the relationship between community readiness, community capacity, and the implementation of the community-level social norming campaign. 5. Disseminate study findings in meaningful and actionable format to a variety of relevant audiences (i.e., community, local organizations and leaders, youth violence prevention researchers and practitioners, academic peers, and policy-makers). The interdisciplinary research team proposes a quasi-experimental design to examine the effectiveness of using a community-level 3-year social norming campaign utilizing new media to change norms of violence among youth 10-24 and introduce prosocial norms driven by cultural identity, with WL as the intervention community and East Nashville, TN as the control community. The researchers and a team of community collaborators will with a professional advertising agency to plan and design the campaign, which will be deployed in Year 2. Surveys and interviews will capture data measuring our dependent variables of social norms and violent behavior (independent variables: campaign exposure by media type, demographics), and population-level youth violence data from schools, emergency departments, and local police departments will offer measures of change in serious youth violence at the population level.