Exposure to Violence and Subsequent Weapons Use: Integrative data analysis across two urban high-risk communities

我们提交此申请是为了响应RFA CE-20-006，“防止火器的研究赠款- 相关暴力和伤害，”具体涉及目标一“，研究有助于为发展提供信息 创新和有前途的机会，以加强安全和防止与枪支有关的伤害，死亡， 犯罪”。我们正在申请资助方案A，即“依赖现有数据的研究项目”。 枪支暴力在美国是一个严重的公共卫生问题，有21,789起故意暴力事件， 2017年与枪支有关的死亡人数，其中三分之一在15-29岁之间; 非洲裔美国人和西班牙裔青年高于白色青年。我们收集了纵向数据 两个武器犯罪高风险的城市样本：密歇根州弗林特（5波数据收集，主要集中在 非裔美国人样本426名参与者，来自2007年2年级、4年级和9年级的三个起始年级队列 2019年的最后一次评估分别为20岁、22岁和27岁）和新泽西州泽西城（每年4次 从高中开始，对200名不同种族的参与者进行了数据收集 2016-2017年的毕业生）。我们在两项研究中使用了类似的测量方法（例如，暴力/武器暴露 邻里，家庭和媒体，对暴力和武器暴露的社会认知，暴力和武器- 相关行为），并且我们使用多波、多源方法（例如，自我，父母，和老师- 报告;参与者社区的地理空间犯罪编码）。通过校准和整合整个 通过两项研究，我们现在可以使用一种强大的数据分析方法来解决四个具体目标：1）评估 暴露于使用武器的暴力行为的发展模式（在邻里，家庭和暴力 媒体），自己的枪支和其他武器的使用，以及社会对暴力，枪支和 武器使用-几乎所有年龄在7至27岁之间的人都包括在合并样本中， 在这三个轨迹; 2）调查如何社会认知暴力和武器使用调解 接触武器暴力与随后使用武器之间纵向关系 暴力; 3）检查邻里枪支犯罪的自我报告和地理空间计算是否 同样的差异或累积预测关于武器暴力的社会认知的轨迹，反过来， 实际自我报告的枪支和其他武器的使用;和4）调查如何个人风险和保护 因素（例如，性别、认知成就、对暴力的情感反应）和家庭或家庭外 背景因素（例如，父母教养，邻里素质）可能会缓和的关系。通过测试键 关于调节认知和情感过程的理论主张，以及保护因素， 我们的研究结果可以为制定多层次的社区干预措施以减少枪支暴力提供信息 在城市青年中。因此，我们建议的研究与广泛的社区暴力问题直接一致， 疾病控制中心的预防议程。

We are submitting this application in response to RFA CE-20-006, “Research Grants to Prevent Firearm- Related Violence and Injuries,” with specific regard to Objective One, “research to help inform the development of innovative and promising opportunities to enhance safety and prevent firearm-related injuries, deaths, and crime.” We are applying for Funding Option A, “research projects that rely on existing data.” Firearm violence in the United States is a serious public health concern, with 21,789 intentional violence- related firearm deaths in 2017, one third of whom are in the 15-29 year old age range; and the rates are much higher among African American and Hispanic compared to white youth. We collected longitudinal data from two urban samples at high risk for weapons crimes: Flint, MI (5 waves of data collection on a predominantly African American sample of 426 participants from three starting grade cohorts in 2007 of 2nd, 4th, and 9th graders, with the last assessment in 2019 at ages 20, 22, and 27, respectively) and Jersey City, NJ (4 annual waves of data collection on an ethnically diverse sample of 200 participants starting as high school sophomores in 2016-2017). We used similar measures in both studies (e.g., violence/weapon exposure in the neighborhood, family, and media, social cognitions about violence and weapon exposure, violent and weapon- related behavior), and we used a multi-wave, multi-source methodology (e.g., self-, parent-, and teacher- reports; geospatial crime coding of participants' neighborhoods). By calibrating and integrating data across the two studies, we can now use a robust approach to data analysis to address four specific aims: 1) assess developmental patterns of exposure to violent behavior with weapons (in the neighborhood, family, and violent media), of one's own firearms and other weapon use, and of social cognitions about violence, firearms, and weapons use—with nearly every age between 7 and 27 covered in the combined samples, and the relations among these three trajectories; 2) investigate how social cognitions about violence and weapon use mediate the longitudinal relation between exposure to weapon violence and subsequent engagement in weapon violence; 3) examine whether self-reports of neighborhood firearm crime and geospatial calculations of the same differentially or cumulatively predict trajectories of social cognitions about weapon violence, and in turn, actual self-reported use of guns and other weapons; and 4) investigate how personal risk and protective factors (e.g., sex, cognitive achievement, emotional reactivity to violence) and family or extra-familial contextual factors (e.g., parenting, neighborhood qualities) might moderate the relations. By testing key theoretical propositions concerning mediating cognitive and emotional processes, as well as protective factors, our findings can inform the development of multi-layered community interventions to reduce gun violence among urban youth. Our proposed study is thus directly in line with the broad community-wide violence prevention agenda of the Centers for Disease Control.