NCJ Number
225576
Journal
Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Dated: January 2009 Pages: 32-45
Date Published
January 2009
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This cross-sectional study examined the link between involvement in activities with adults and weapon-carrying among predominantly low-income African-American and Hispanic urban high school students.
Abstract
Both unadjusted and adjusted study results show an inverse association between youth involvement in activities with adults and weapon-carrying. The findings suggest that any adult, not just a parent, can have a potential positive role in reducing violent behaviors among youth by reducing the potential for harm associated with weapon-carrying. This suggests that researchers, pediatricians, and community health care providers may want to consider designing interventions that increase the amount of time youth spend with adults. During the spring and fall of 2000, students attending three high schools in a large urban school district in southeast Texas participated in the baseline assessment of a large communitywide collaborative project called the Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative. This program aimed to reduce violence and substance use. One phase of the program involved a survey of 981 students. Items used in the survey were taken from the Texas Prevention Impact Index. The independent variable was frequency of adolescent involvement with adults in six activities. The dependent variable was number of days during the past 30 days in which a weapon was carried. The association between frequency of adult involvement and weapon-carrying was adjusted for several known covariates of weapon-carrying from other studies. 4 tables, 1 figure, and 40 references