@article{ref1,
title="Gun access, ownership, gun-related experiences, and substance use in young adults: a latent class analysis",
journal="American journal of drug and alcohol abuse encompassing all addictive disorders",
year="2020",
author="Lu, Yu and Temple, Jeff R.",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="<i>Background</i>: Substance use is found to associate with gun violence. However, mixed findings have been reported for gun access/ownership. To date, studies have examined gun access/ownership and gun-related experiences (e.g., carrying) separately despite the fact that gun-related experiences often occur among gun owners.<i>Objectives</i>: This study identifies groups of young adults based on their gun access/ownership and gun-related experiences (i.e., gun carrying, threatened someone with a gun, been threatened with a gun) and assesses whether these groups differ on their use of alcohol, cigarettes, e-cigarettes, marijuana, hard drugs, and nonmedical use of prescription medication.<i>Methods</i>: This study uses cross-sectional data from Wave 8 of the study <i>Dating it Safe</i>. Participants were 663 young adults (Mean age = 22 years; 62% female). Latent class analysis (LCA) was performed.<i>Results</i>: LCA identified three classes: (1) <i>Minimal Gun Access/Experience</i> (65.0%), (2) <i>Gun Access without Experience</i> (33.4%), (3) <i>Gun Access with Experience</i> (1.6%). Individuals in the <i>Gun Access with Experience</i> class reported more frequent few past month alcohol (17 days vs. 7 and 8 days, <i>p</i> <.001), episodic heavy drinking (13 days vs. 2 and 3 days, <i>p</i> <.001) and cigarette use (21 days vs. 10 and 10 days, <i>p</i> <.001) compared to these in the <i>Minimal Gun Access/Experience</i> and <i>Gun Access without Experience</i> classes, respectively.<i>Conclusions</i>: Individuals who have access to/own guns with and without gun-related experiences face different risks of substance use. <br><br>FINDINGS highlight the need to examine gun access/ownership based on actual gun experiences and further emphasize the importance of addressing substance abuse for gun violence prevention.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0095-2990",
doi="10.1080/00952990.2019.1700266",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00952990.2019.1700266"
}