Citation

Beachy S, Liang CTH. J. Res. Adolesc. 2023; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/jora.12892

PMID

37814450

Abstract

Weapon carrying among White rural populations is understudied although evidence suggests that rural White boys have high rates of carriage. This study delineated patterns of weapon use and pro-gun beliefs using a latent class analysis on a sample of 32,916 White rural adolescents. Five groups were identified (i.e., Low Gun Risk, Naïve, Social Contagion, Independent, Unsupervised) using pro-gun beliefs, peer risk factors, and weapon carrying items. Multinomial logistic regression analyses revealed that identifying as male, age, housing instability, and victimization consistently differentiated group membership between different classes. These results suggest that rural White adolescents vary in their belief systems about guns and weapon carrying behavior and that this heterogeneity can be differentiated by lived experiences of these adolescents.

Language: en

Keywords

adolescents; victimization; gun violence; rural; weapon carrying