This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

A School-Based Survey

Charles M. Callahan, MD, MPH; Frederick P. Rivara, MD, MPH

JAMA. 1992;267(22):3038-3042.

Abstract
Objective.
—To determine the prevalence of handgun ownership among urban high school youth and investigate associations with socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and deviant behaviors.

Design.
—Survey of half of the Seattle, Wash, public high schools, which enroll 50% of the school district's 11th-grade students (N=970).

Main Outcome Measures.
—Self-reports of handgun ownership, perceived access to handguns, racial/ethnic identity, social status (Hollingshead's Two Factor Index of Social Position), and social deviance (Seattle Self-Report Instrument) were determined.

Results.
—Thirty-four percent of the students reported easy access to handguns (47% of males, 22% of females) and 6.4% reported owning a handgun (11.4% of males, 1.5% of females). Reported firearm experiences indicated a high rate of handgun utilization: 33% of handgun owners had fired at someone, 9.7% of female students reported a firearm homicide or suicide in family members or close friends, and 6% of male students reported carrying a handgun to school sometime in the past. Handgun ownership was more common among students who reported deviant behaviors. Adjusting for age, gender, and racial/ethnic group and controlling for covariation among the problem behaviors, gang membership (odds ratio [OR], 8.8; 95% confidence interval [Cl], 3.7 to 20.8), sentencing by a judge (OR, 4.6; 95% Cl, 1.3 to 15.5), selling drugs (OR, 3.7; 95% Cl, 1.8 to 7.8), suspension or expulsion from school (OR, 3.5; 95% CI, 1.7 to 7.0), and assault and battery (OR, 2.5; 95% Cl, 1.1 to 5.9) were associated with handgun ownership. However, 22% of male handgun owners did not report any of the above behaviors.

Conclusion.
—The availability of handguns to the urban high school students surveyed is pervasive, and it is not limited to high-risk groups.

(JAMA. 1992;267:3038-3042)

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington, Seattle. Dr Callahan is now with Children's Hospital and Medical Center, Seattle.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center, 325 Ninth Ave, ZX-10, Seattle, WA 98104 (Dr Callahan).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Effects of Community, School, and Student Factors on School-Based Weapon Carrying
Watkins
Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice 2008;6:386-409.
ABSTRACT  

Adolescents' Views of Guns in a High-Violence Community
Black and Hausman
Journal of Adolescent Research 2008;23:592-610.
ABSTRACT  

Is Office-Based Counseling About Media Use, Timeouts, and Firearm Storage Effective? Results From a Cluster-Randomized, Controlled Trial
Barkin et al.
Pediatrics 2008;122:e15-e25.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Recreational Gun Use by California Adolescents
Vittes and Sorenson
Health Educ Behav 2005;32:751-766.
ABSTRACT  

Bullets, Blades, and Being Afraid in Hispanic High Schools: An Exploratory Study of the Presence of Weapons and Fear of Weapon-Associated Victimization Among High School Students in a Border Town
Brown and Benedict
Crime Delinquency 2004;50:372-394.
ABSTRACT  

Unsupervised firearm handling by California adolescents
Miller and Hemenway
Inj. Prev. 2004;10:163-168.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Adolescents and Firearms: A California Statewide Survey
Sorenson and Vittes
AJPH 2004;94:852-858.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Juveniles and Weapons: Recent Research, Conceptual Considerations, and Programmatic Interventions
Brown
Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice 2004;2:161-184.
ABSTRACT  

Gun Threats Against and Self-defense Gun Use by California Adolescents
Hemenway and Miller
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2004;158:395-400.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Prevalence of youth access to alcohol or a gun in the home
Swahn et al.
Inj. Prev. 2002;8:227-230.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Adolescent Violence: Assessment of Nurses' Attitudes and Educational Needs
Breakey et al.
J Holist Nurs 2001;19:143-162.
ABSTRACT  

Attitudes of New York City High School Students Regarding Firearm Violence
Kahn et al.
Pediatrics 2001;107:1125-1132.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Health Care for Children and Adolescents in the Juvenile Correctional Care System
Committee on Adolescence
Pediatrics 2001;107:799-803.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Factors Preventing Gun Acquisition and Carrying Among Incarcerated Adolescent Males
Freed et al.
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2001;155:335-341.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

The Aggression Scale:: A Self-Report Measure of Aggressive Behavior for Young Adolescents
Orpinas and Frankowski
The Journal of Early Adolescence 2001;21:50-67.
ABSTRACT  

Policy and Politics
Health Promot Pract 2001;2:27-31.
 

The Impact of Poverty, Fear of Crime, and Crime Victimization on Keeping Firearms for Protection and Unsafe Gun-Storage Practices: A Review and Analysis with Policy Recommendations
Vacha and McLaughlin
Urban Education 2000;35:496-510.
ABSTRACT  

Contributors to Violent Behavior Among Elementary and Middle School Children
Singer et al.
Pediatrics 1999;104:878-884.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Scared Kids, Unattached Kids, or Peer Pressure: Why Do Students Carry Firearms to School?
MAY
Youth Society 1999;31:100-127.
ABSTRACT  

The Role of the Pediatrician in Youth Violence Prevention in Clinical Practice and at the Community Level
Task Force on Violence
Pediatrics 1999;103:173-181.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Carrying Guns for Protection: Results from the National Self-Defense Survey
KLECK and GERTZ
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 1998;35:193-224.
ABSTRACT  

African American Mothers in South Central Los Angeles: Their Fears for Their Newborn's Future
Schuster et al.
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 1998;152:264-268.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Fears and Other Suspected Risk Factors for Carrying Lethal Weapons Among Urban Youths of Middle-school Age
Arria et al.
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 1997;151:555-560.
ABSTRACT  

A National Assessment of Secondary School Principals' Perceptions of Violence in Schools
Price and Everett
Health Educ Behav 1997;24:218-229.
ABSTRACT  

Juvenile Delinquency and Adolescent Trauma: How Strong Is the Connection?
Conseur et al.
Pediatrics 1997;99:e5-e5.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Illicit Substance Use, Gender, and the Risk of Violent Behavior Among Adolescents
Dukarm et al.
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 1996;150:797-801.
ABSTRACT  

Population Estimates of Household Firearm Storage Practices and Firearm Carrying in Oregon
Nelson et al.
JAMA 1996;275:1744-1748.
ABSTRACT  

Adolescent Depression and Suicide: A Review and Analysis of the Current Literature
Pagliaro
Canadian Journal of School Psychology 1996;11:191-201.
ABSTRACT  

Prevalence of Carrying a Weapon and Related Behaviors in Urban Schoolchildren, 1989 to 1993
Arria et al.
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 1995;149:1345-1350.
ABSTRACT  

Homicide in New York City: Cocaine Use and Firearms
Tardiff et al.
JAMA 1994;272:43-46.
ABSTRACT  

Firearm Violence and Public Health: Limiting the Availability of Guns
Adler et al.
JAMA 1994;271:1281-1283.
ABSTRACT  

A Youth Violence Prevention Program: Description and Preliminary Evaluation
Gainer et al.
Arch Surg 1993;128:303-308.
ABSTRACT  

Pediatric Basic Life Support
JAMA 1992;268:2251-2261.
ABSTRACT  

Children and Childhoods: Hidden Casualties of War and Civil Unrest
Schaller and Nightingale
JAMA 1992;268:642-644.
ABSTRACT  

Violence in America: A Public Health Emergency: Time to Bite the Bullet Back
Koop and Lundberg
JAMA 1992;267:3075-3076.
ABSTRACT