Guns in the home and adolescent health

Background: Firearms are a major public health concern particularly in light of rising rates of fatal and nonfatal firearm-related events among youths. Potential secondary or indirect effects of firearms have often been overlooked however. For instance, the presence of a firearm in the home may instill violent attitudes, communicate the importance or inevitability of violence, and lower the threshold for violent action in exposed adolescents. We examine relationships between the presence of a gun in the home, attitudes toward violence, and several risk and risk-related behaviors.

Methods: Tests are based on a community sample of over 6,000 adolescents living in economically impoverished neighborhoods in a mid-sized southern city from 2006-2009. We use regression analyses to assess relationships by gender. Our dependent variables include level of hopelessness, fighting, drug/alcohol use, attitudes toward violence, and school suspension. Measures accounting for other factors that possibly related to such outcomes (e.g., school grades, temperament, parental monitoring) are also incorporated.

Results: Nearly half (43.2%) of the youths in our sample reported the presence of a gun in his/her home, with boys reporting it more often than girls (48.8% to 37.6%). Results of our regression analyses indicate that the presence of a gun in the home is associated with a variety of risk-related outcomes for both genders (e.g., hopelessness, fighting, attitude toward violence, etc., all ps < .05).

Conclusions: It is important to recognize not only the direct—and most severe—consequences of firearms, but also indirect factors as well in order to promote safe communities.