Reducing Youth Access to Firearms through the Health Care Setting

• In Event: Research on Firearms & Violence at the National Institute of Justice

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to examine the implementation and effectiveness of an intervention delivered in a health care setting to decrease home firearm access by youth. A total of 800 youth, age 12-17, attending a large urban outpatient adolescent health clinic and their parents will be enrolled in the study. Youth coming to the clinic for routine physicals will be screened for risk. Clinicians trained in using a tested means restriction education protocol will deliver means restriction counseling randomly to half of all families reporting guns in the home. Self-reported parental behaviors to follow firearm means restriction recommendations will be compared on the basis of responsiveness and between families in which the adolescent test as high risk for violence or depression to those testing at low risk. The implementation process will also be assessed to guide future dissemination.

Author

• Eric Sigel, University of Colorado