Response of African‐American Adolescents in North Carolina to Gun Carrying by School Mates

Abstract

This study examined adolescents' perceptions concerning the presence of guns in their school and the adolescents' emotional and behavioral responses associated with these perceptions. Survey data from 376 African-American sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students of a low-income area of a North Carolina city were studied. Twenty-eight percent of adolescents reported that other students brought guns to school, 36% felt afraid that someone would hurt or attack them while at school, 15% avoided school (or places in school) because of fear that a student would hurt or attack them, and 20% carried weapons to school for self-protection. Logistic regression analyses found that, compared to their peers, adolescents who perceived that their school mates brought guns to school were almost twice as likely to experience fear while at school, were more than three times more likely to exhibit school avoidance behavior, and were more than twice as likely to bring a weapon to school themselves for self-protection. Educators and school health professionals are urged to work together to address these problems concerning school safety.

Understanding and assessing school police officers: A conceptual and methodological comment

“…Bowen, Richman, Brewster, & N.K. Bowen, 1998;DuRant, Kahn, Beckford, & Woods, 1997;Everett & Price, 1995;Malek, Chang, & Davis, 1998;Martin, Sadowski, Cotten, & McCarraher, 1996). The students' scholastic performance is important because, over the past century, criminologists have time and again documented an inverse relationship between educational attainment and criminal behavior (Duncan, 1931;Glueck & Glueck, 1950;Hirschi, 1969;Sampson & Laub, 1993).…”

School disorder, victimization, and general v. place-specific student avoidance

“…This linkage has also been addressed in studies of high-school student fear. Such research indicates that students who express being fearful or having a heightened perception of risk associated with school are more likely to avoid attending school Bastian & Taylor, 1991;Lawrence, 1998;Martin et al, 1996;Pearson & Toby, 1991).…”

Testing Three Explanations of the Emergence of Weapon Carrying in Peer Context: The Roles of Aggression, Victimization, and the Social Network

“…Peer influence on weapon carrying has been inferred from the findings of previous research, showing that weapon carrying among adolescents is related to perceived weapon carrying of peers [6,7] or friends [4,8 -10]. However, in these studies, the weapon carrying by friends was reported by adolescents themselves, which potentially inflates the magnitude of similarities in behaviors and, consequently, influences processes.…”

“…However, it has also been suggested that it is not so much being the initiator of aggression, rather it is being the target of aggression, that triggers weapon carrying as a defensive response [7,21]. Consistent with this perspective, weapon carrying has been associated with feelings of being threatened, such as victimization, fearfulness, and selfprotection [7,[21][22][23][24].…”

“…Weapon carrying among adolescents has been explained as a consequence of peer influence [4], as a component of a delinquent lifestyle, and as a protective response to threats in the environment [5]. The goal of this study is to examine the relative contribution of each of these explanations in a normative population-based sample of male and female high school students in the United States.Peer influence on weapon carrying has been inferred from the findings of previous research, showing that weapon carrying among adolescents is related to perceived weapon carrying of peers [6,7] or friends [4,8 -10]. However, in these studies, the weapon carrying by friends was reported by adolescents themselves, which potentially inflates the magnitude of similarities in behaviors and, consequently, influences processes.…”