Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #101002

Renée M. Johnson, PhD, MPH, Harvard Injury Control Research Center, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Ave, 318 Kresge Bldg, Boston, MA 02115, 617-432-5679, rejohnso@hsph.harvard.edu, Carol Runyan, PhD, Injury Prevention Research Center, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Campus Box 7505, 137 East Franklin St, Suite 500, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7505, Tamera D. Coyne-Beasley, MD, MPH, Department of Pediatrics, UNC Chapel Hill Medical School, University of North Carolina, CB 7225, Wing C, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, Megan A. Lewis, PhD, Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 313 Rosenau Hall, CB #7440, School of Public Health, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7440, and J. Michael Bowling, PhD, Health Behavior and Health Education, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB 7440, Chapel Hill, NC 27599.

Purpose. Use the Theory of Planned Behavior to examine psychosocial factors relevant to keeping household firearms stored in a locked place (i.e., attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norms – or perception of spouses' attitudes), and assess the association between these factors and the presence of an unlocked firearm. Methods. This cross-sectional study surveyed married women who had children (<19) living with them, and who had at least one firearm in their homes. Two frames (a listed-household frame, and a list-assisted random digit dial frame) were used to generate the national sample. Telephone interviews (~10 min.) were conducted in 2004 with randomly-selected respondents. Results. Although many respondents had an unlocked firearm in the home (43%, n=185), most reported favorable attitudes (76.1%), supportive subjective norms from their husbands (72.4%), and high perceived behavioral control (89.1%) regarding keeping firearms locked up. Logistic regression models showed that these psychosocial factors were associated with a reduced likelihood of having an unlocked firearm in the home. Although the protective effect decreased after adjustment, these relationships held after controlling for the effect of the other two factors. Confidence intervals (95%) are as follows: (1) Attitude: Crude (0.10-0.31); Adjusted (0.20-0.91), (2) Subjective Norm: Crude (0.18-0.40); Adjusted (0.29-0.94), and (3) Perceived Behavioral Control: Crude (0.13-0.39), Adjusted (0.31-1.12). Conclusion. The psychosocial factors examined were strongly related to firearm storage practices. Efforts to improve firearm storage practices should be tailored to address specific attitudes and beliefs in order to persuade parents to keep firearm stored more safely.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

• Discuss the influence that psychosocial factors have in determining firearm storage practices;
• Recognize the importance of using behavioral theory to understand firearm storage practices

Keywords: Firearms, Behavioral Research

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation