Ruffini Krista, Roan Gresenz Carole, Gordon Nora
Georgetown University, McCourt School of Public Policy, Washington, DC, USA.
Georgetown University, School of Health, Washington, DC, USA.
Prev Med Rep. 2024 Jul 10;45:102817. doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2024.102817. eCollection 2024 Sep.
To examine how "stand-your-ground" (SYG) laws affect children's academic performance.
We analyze 2008-2018 nationwide school district-level math and reading/language arts (RLA) test scores for 3rd-8th grade students combined with information on SYG laws by state and year. We implement two estimation approaches-two-way-fixed effects and group-time average treatment effects-and conduct analyses stratified by student race (Black, White) and area income level.
We find negative effects of SYG on math achievement among all students using both estimation approaches (-0.0377 standard deviation decline, p < 0.001 and -0.0493, p < 0.001). We find adverse effects of SYG on math among White students (-0.0315, p = 0.001 and -0.0312, p = 0.08) and among students in low-income districts (-0.0616, p < 0.001 and -0.0903, p < 0.001). The precision of estimates for the effect on math scores among Black students varies across approaches (-0.0666, p = 0.05, -0.0444, p = 0.48). We estimate negative effects of SYG on RLA achievement in only a subset of models.
Our findings suggest SYG laws adversely affect math performance among 3rd-8th grade students.
These findings underscore the importance of additional work to understand and quantify the relationship between the nation's gun policies and children's academic performance.
研究“坚守阵地”（SYG）法律如何影响儿童的学业成绩。
我们分析了2008 - 2018年全国学区层面三至八年级学生的数学和阅读/语言艺术（RLA）测试成绩，并结合了各州和各年份的SYG法律信息。我们采用了两种估计方法——双向固定效应和组间时间平均处理效应，并按学生种族（黑人、白人）和地区收入水平进行分层分析。
我们使用两种估计方法均发现SYG对所有学生的数学成绩有负面影响（标准差下降0.0377，p < 0.001；标准差下降0.0493，p < 0.001）。我们发现SYG对白人学生的数学成绩有不利影响（标准差下降0.0315，p = 0.001；标准差下降0.0312，p = 0.08），对低收入地区学生的数学成绩也有不利影响（标准差下降0.0616，p < 0.001；标准差下降0.0903，p < 0.001）。黑人学生数学成绩受影响估计值的精度在不同方法间有所不同（标准差下降0.0666，p = 0.05；标准差下降0.0444，p = 0.48）。我们仅在部分模型中估计出SYG对RLA成绩有负面影响。
我们的研究结果表明，SYG法律对三至八年级学生的数学成绩有不利影响。
这些研究结果强调了进一步开展工作以理解和量化国家枪支政策与儿童学业成绩之间关系的重要性。
