Latent Profiles of Firearm Violence and Exposure Among Youth and Young Adults in the US

• In Event: Growing Up With Guns: Findings from a Nationally Representative Survey of Youth and Young Adults

Abstract

Firearm violence is the second leading cause of death among youth and adolescents in the US. Understanding the range of youth exposure to gun violence–including self-harm, direct experience of victimization and perpetration, and indirect exposure–is of critical importance. We examined the co-occurrence profiles of forms of exposure in a sample of nationally representative youth and young adults. Latent class analysis was applied to survey data collected from the AmeriSpeak panel, representing US youth and young adults aged 10 to 34. Outcome variables included gun violence perpetration, victimization, self-harm, and indirect exposure. Covariate descriptors of the profiles included gender, race, age, urbanity, income, and region. We found four latent classes, including a class reflecting high risk of all types (high gun exposure class; 3.4%), a class representing gun victimization and indirect gun violence (victimization and indirect only class;15.1%), a class with only indirect gun violence exposure (indirect only class; 18.7%), and a class with low gun violence exposure (low gun exposure class; 62.8%). Class membership was distinguishable by selected demographics. Young people in the US fall into four different profiles of gun violence exposure, with implications for prevention work targeted to meet the differential needs of these profiles.

Authors

• Weiwei Liu, NORC at the University of Chicago

• Jackie Sheridan-Johnson, NORC at the University of Chicago

• Kimberly Mitchell, University of New Hampshire

• Victoria Banyard, Rutgers University

• Elizabeth Mumford, NORC at the University of Chicago

• Bruce Taylor, NORC at the University of Chicago