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

 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，内城和少数民族人口的不成比例的负担。故意伤害是肯塔基州10至24岁人群死亡的主要原因，也是全国该年龄组死亡的第二大原因。令人震惊的是，肯塔基州同一年龄组的黑人男性杀人率（38.7/10万）比白色男性（3.9/10万）高出10倍。在路易斯维尔，肯塔基州，大量的社会和健康问题，包括暴力和相关的风险因素，集中在西路易斯维尔（WL），经济上处于不利地位，城市，主要是黑人社区。在公共卫生与信息科学学院（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青年暴力预防中心。该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的青年暴力预防研究和实践。2.制定、实施和评估社区一级的社会规范运动，利用大众媒体和社交媒体改变西路易斯维尔青年中的暴力规范。3.记录社会规范运动的发展和实施情况，以改善在其他环境或社区的复制和推广。4.评估社区准备、社区能力和社区一级社会规范运动的实施之间的关系。5.以有意义和可操作的形式向各种相关受众传播研究结果（即，社区、地方组织和领导人、预防青年暴力研究人员和从业人员、学术界同行和政策制定者）。跨学科的研究小组提出了一个准实验设计，以检查使用社区一级的3年社会规范运动的有效性，利用新媒体改变青少年之间的暴力规范10-24，并引入亲社会规范驱动的文化认同，与WL作为干预社区和东纳什维尔，TN作为控制社区。研究人员和一个社区合作者团队将与一家专业广告公司一起规划和设计该活动，该活动将在第二年部署。调查和访谈将获取测量社会规范和暴力行为的因变量的数据（自变量：媒体类型的竞选曝光率，人口统计学），来自学校，急诊室和当地警察局的人口级青少年暴力数据将提供人口级严重青少年暴力变化的措施。

 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.