Department of Sociology & Criminology, Gonzaga University, Spokane, Washington, USA.
Department of Emergency Medicine, Violence Prevention Research Program, University of California Davis School of Medicine, Sacramento, California, USA.
J Adolesc. 2024 Jul;96(5):1137-1152. doi: 10.1002/jad.12324. Epub 2024 Apr 8.
Witnessing violence and violent victimization have detrimental effects on adolescents' emotional functioning and ability to envision and plan for their futures. However, research is limited on the impact of violence that occurs in adolescents' communities-whether or not it was witnessed or experienced firsthand. This paper investigated the associations between community exposure to gun homicide and adolescents' high school and college graduation aspirations.
We analyzed data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 3031), a cohort study of children born 1998-2000 in 20 large US cities, merged with incident-level data on deadly gun violence from the Gun Violence Archive (2014-2017). Outcomes were reported by adolescents (girls and boys) during wave 6 (2014-2017) of the study, conducted when the children were 15 years of age. We employed ordinary least squares regression, ordered logistic regression, and multilevel stratification to examine the average and heterogeneous impacts of community exposure to gun homicide on adolescents' educational aspirations.
Community exposure to gun homicide was associated with reduced high school graduation aspirations, particularly among adolescents with the lowest risk of exposure to gun homicide. Gun homicide exposure was also associated with increased college graduation aspirations; this association was concentrated among adolescents with moderate-high risk of exposure.
Given the importance of education for job opportunities and the better health that accompanies education and occupational attainment, preventing early exposure to gun violence and providing institutional supports to help adolescents facing adversity realize their goals is essential to their long-term health and success.
目睹暴力和遭受暴力侵害对青少年的情绪功能以及对未来的设想和规划能力有不利影响。然而，对于发生在青少年社区中的暴力，无论是目击还是亲身经历，其影响的研究有限。本文探讨了社区内枪支凶杀事件暴露与青少年高中和大学毕业愿望之间的关联。
我们分析了未来家庭和儿童福祉研究（N=3031）的数据，这是一项在美国 20 个大城市中出生于 1998-2000 年的儿童的队列研究，与枪支暴力档案（2014-2017 年）中的致命枪支暴力事件的事件水平数据相合并。结果由青少年（女孩和男孩）在研究的第 6 波（2014-2017 年）期间报告，此时儿童为 15 岁。我们采用普通最小二乘法回归、有序逻辑回归和多层次分层来检验社区内枪支凶杀事件暴露对青少年教育愿望的平均和异质影响。
社区内枪支凶杀事件暴露与高中毕业愿望降低有关，尤其是在枪支凶杀事件暴露风险最低的青少年中。枪支凶杀事件暴露也与大学毕业愿望增加有关；这种关联集中在枪支凶杀事件暴露风险中等偏高的青少年中。
鉴于教育对就业机会的重要性以及教育和职业获得所带来的更好的健康，预防青少年早期接触枪支暴力并为面临逆境的青少年提供机构支持以帮助他们实现目标，对于他们的长期健康和成功至关重要。
