Mattingly Delvon T, Fleischer Nancy L
Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health, Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.
Department of Behavioral Science, College of Medicine, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 40536, USA.
Soc Sci Humanit Open. 2024;10. doi: 10.1016/j.ssaho.2024.100972. Epub 2024 Jun 4.
As civil unrest about policing in the United States (US) continue, research on changing opinions about police agencies is needed, especially among younger populations. These opinions may be associated with distress and other health outcomes that come with public health implications.
We aggregated and used yearly 2017 to 2021 data on 12th-grade youth living in the US from the Monitoring the Future cross-sectional study (n = 7132). We categorized opinions about police agency job performance into 1) very poor/poor (hereafter: poor), 2) fair/good/very good, and 3) no opinion. To examine trends in policy agency opinions over time, we conducted logistic regression between year and opinions, adjusted for age, sex, and race and ethnicity, and included a two-way interaction between year and race and ethnicity to determine differences across racial and ethnic groups by year.
From 2017 to 2020, the proportion of youth who believed police did a poor job remained constant. However, from 2020 to 2021, this proportion increased from 24.4% to 50.0%. Results from regression models showed that year 2021 (vs. 2017) was associated with nearly three times higher odds of perceiving police agencies do a poor job (OR: 2.90, 95% CI: 1.87-4.52). The interaction between year and race and ethnicity indicated that each racial and ethnic group in 2021 had higher odds of perceiving police agencies do a poor job compared to 2017, with associations strongest for non-Hispanic Black (OR: 6.46, 95% CI: 3.74-11.18) and non-Hispanic multiracial (OR: 7.38, 95% CI: 2.99-18.25) youth.
Negative opinions about police agencies increased from 2017 to 2021, and differences were observed by race and ethnicity. Shifting youth views about police agencies in the US reflect the greater social context of the period, with potential implications for public health.
随着美国国内针对治安问题的社会动荡持续不断，有必要开展关于人们对警察机构看法变化的研究，尤其是在年轻人群体中。这些看法可能与困扰及其他健康结果相关，具有公共卫生意义。
我们汇总并使用了来自“监测未来”横断面研究中2017年至2021年每年居住在美国的12年级青少年的数据（n = 7132）。我们将对警察机构工作表现的看法分为1）非常差/差（以下简称：差），2）一般/好/非常好，3）无看法。为了研究对警察机构看法随时间的变化趋势，我们在年份和看法之间进行逻辑回归，并对年龄、性别、种族和民族进行了调整，还纳入了年份与种族和民族之间的双向交互作用，以确定不同种族和民族群体随年份的差异。
从2017年到2020年，认为警察工作差的青少年比例保持不变。然而，从2020年到2021年，这一比例从24.4%上升到了50.0%。回归模型的结果显示，2021年（与2017年相比）认为警察机构工作差的几率几乎高出两倍（比值比：2.90，95%置信区间：1.87 - 4.52）。年份与种族和民族之间的交互作用表明，与2017年相比，2021年每个种族和民族群体认为警察机构工作差的几率都更高，其中非西班牙裔黑人（比值比：6.46，95%置信区间：3.74 - 11.18）和非西班牙裔多种族（比值比：7.38，95%置信区间：2.99 - 18.25）青少年的关联最强。
2017年至2021年期间，对警察机构的负面看法有所增加，且在种族和民族方面存在差异。美国青少年对警察机构看法的转变反映了这一时期更大的社会背景，对公共卫生具有潜在影响。
