Violence among school-attending adolescents in New Orleans before and after Hurricane Katrina

Anecdotal reports of increased youth violence in New Orleans post-Katrina have received much attention; however no studies have examined changes in violence-related behaviors among New Orleans adolescents using population-based data. We assessed trends in violence-related behaviors and attitudes among school-attending youth in grades 9-12 using data from the 2003, 2005 (pre-storm) and 2007 (post-storm) New Orleans Youth Risk Behavior survey (n=5,312). Using Stata 10.0, we ran descriptive and bivariate (chi-square) analyses with corrections for complex survey design and applying population weights. Respondents' demographic characteristics were roughly the same before and after the storm: average age was 16 years, 52% were female, and about 90% were African American. Self-reported perpetration acts were stable in prevalence over time: past 30 days carrying a weapon, carrying a weapon to school, or carrying a gun, and past year fighting or fighting at school. In contrast, school truancy due to feeling unsafe at school decreased after the storm (16.2% 2003, 19.8% 2005, 9.4% 2007, p<0.01). Victimization was either stable over time (being threatened at school), or increased compared to 2003, although these were continuations of pre-storm trends (dating violence: 13.1% 2003, 20.8% 2005, 22.2% 2007, p<0.01 and sexual coercion: 8.3% 2003, 11.6% 2005, 10.0% 2007, p=0.04). None of these trends were significantly different by gender. Results do not support post-Katrina surges in violence-related behaviors among school-attending youth in New Orleans. Future analyses will examine trends after adjusting for demographic changes and contextualize these trends with those in other cities.