title: Development and factor analysis of a measure of youth attitudes toward guns and violence.
abstract: Administered the Attitudes Toward Guns and Violence Questionnaire (AGVQ) to 1,619 students in Grades 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, and 12 from four demographically diverse school systems. Fifty-two of the 61 items exhibited satisfactory part-whole correlation and correlation with a validity criterion. Factor analysis revealed four main factors: Aggressive Response to Shame, Comfort With Aggression, Excitement, and Power/Safety. The instrument was reduced to 23 items by deleting items with high cross-loadings. Construct validity was similar for the longer and shorter versions. Youth who self-reported owning a gun produced scores 1.5 SD higher than nonowners. Low scores were associated with a 1 in 125 chance of gun ownership, and high scores were associated with a 1 in 3 chance. Congruency coefficients indicated similar factor structure for the present sample and a separate sample of 5th-, 7th- and 9th-grade students. These results indicate that the AGVQ is a reliable and valid measure of violence-related attitudes in young people.
authors.affiliation: Center for Research, Evaluation, and Training, Applewood Centers, Inc., Cleveland, OH 44115, USA.
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Shapiro
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Dorman
authors.forename: W M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Burkey
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Welker
authors.forename: J B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Clough
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001290:Attitude; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005389:Firearms; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology*; D014948:Wounds, Gunshot / Q000523:psychology