Bullying and physical violence and their association with handgun carrying among youth growing up in rural areas

Risk Factors Associated With Bullying in Context of a Territory Exposed to Armed Conflict: A Cross-sectional Study

School violence and bullying are current and problematic events during adolescence. They are likely to have a marked presence in places highly exposed to armed conflict and violent environments, representing a double public health problem. The study aims to estimate the prevalence of different types of school violence perpetrated and experienced by school adolescents in a community with a history of exposure to armed conflict. Two thousand one hundred eighty-five school adolescents from a municipality in Colombia (males = 54.1%, 14-16 years = 38.6%) participated in the study. Nine educational institutions were included. A systematic random sampling was designed, with a proportional allocation of 35% within each school year from sixth to eleventh grade. The School Coexistence and Circumstances Affecting it-ECECA survey was applied. The prevalence and risks of bully and bullying were estimated. RRa were calculated with the 95% confidence interval adjusted for the other confounding variables. Analyses were constructed from generalized linear models, under the Poisson family and a logarithmic link function. We found a 9.3% of bullying victimization and a 3.5% prevalence of bully. A higher risk of bully was found among males, persons between 10 and 14 years of age, residents of rural or urban dispersed areas, residents of violent neighborhoods, alcohol consumers at school, and victims of aggression in childhood (RRa > 1.0, p-values <.05). The risk of victimization of bullying was higher in students younger than 15 years old, as residents of urban areas, having a history of childhood aggression, suffering abuse by a close person, and as alcohol users at school. This study provides evidence of risk factors for aggression and bullying that have implications for possible prevention measures in multiple social domains, including the individual, the family, and the school environment.

Examining the Relation Between Early Violence Exposure and Firearm-Related Experiences in Emerging Adulthood: A Longitudinal Cohort Study

Firearms are a leading cause of death among adolescents and young adults in the United States. Early exposure to violence, as a victim or witness, is associated with increased risk of firearm-related experiences, including carrying and threatening others with a gun. These experiences, in turn, increase the risk of both fatal and non-fatal firearm injuries. Using an ethnically diverse sample of emerging adults, we build on prior research by examining the link between early violence exposure at multiple contexts of the social-ecological model and multiple firearm-related experiences (i.e., firearm-threatening victimization, firearm-threatening perpetration, and firearm carriage). We analyzed data from a 10-year longitudinal study of 1042 youth in the Southern United States. Experiencing childhood physical abuse was associated with both firearm-threatening victimization and perpetration in emerging adulthood. Additionally, exposure to neighborhood and interparental violence were linked to threatening others with firearms and carrying firearms, respectively. Counter to expectations, bullying victimization did not emerge as a predictor of any firearm-related experiences. Findings highlight the importance of cross-cutting violence prevention efforts to prevent high-risk firearm-related behaviors among emerging adults. Programs for children and adolescents that address these types of violence exposure should highlight coping skills and sources of positive social support to bolster protective factors against firearm-related outcomes.

The association of alcohol use and heavy drinking with subsequent handgun carrying among youth from rural areas

PURPOSE

Alcohol use and handgun carrying are more prevalent among youth in rural than urban areas and their association may be stronger among rural adolescents. Alcohol use may be modifiable with implications for reducing handgun carrying and firearm-related harm. We examined the association between lagged alcohol use and subsequent handgun carrying in rural areas and examined variation in the association by developmental stages, hypothesizing that it would be stronger among adolescents than youth adults.

METHODS

We used a longitudinal sample of 2,002 adolescents from ages 12 to 26 growing up in 12 rural communities in 7 states with surveys collected from 2004 to 2019. We estimated the association of lagged past-month alcohol use on handgun carrying in the subsequent 12 months using population-average generalized estimating equations with logistic regression on multiply imputed data.

FINDINGS

During adolescence (ages 12-18), those who drank heavily had 1.43 times the odds (95% CI = [1.01, 2.03]) of subsequent handgun carrying compared to those who did not drink alcohol, and those who consumed alcohol but did not drink heavily had 1.30 times the odds of subsequent handgun carrying compared to those who did not drink (95% CI = [0.98, 1.71]). During young adulthood (ages 19-26), associations of alcohol use (OR = 1.28; 95% CI = [0.94, 1.63]) and heavy drinking (OR = 1.38; 95% CI = [1.08, 1.68]) were similar to adolescence.

CONCLUSIONS

Alcohol use and subsequent handgun carrying were positively associated during adolescence and young adulthood among individuals who grew up in rural areas, similar to findings in urban areas. Reducing alcohol use may be an important strategy to prevent handgun carrying and firearm-related harm among young people in rural areas.