Reducing weapon-carrying among urban American Indian young people.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the likelihood of weapon-carrying among urban American Indian young people, given the presence of salient risk and protective factors.


METHODS
The study used data from a confidential, self-report Urban Indian Youth Health Survey with 200 forced-choice items examining risk and protective factors and social, contextual, and demographic information. Between 1995 and 1998, 569 American Indian youths, aged 9-15 years, completed surveys administered in public schools and an after-school program. Using logistic regression, probability profiles compared the likelihood of weapon-carrying, given the combinations of salient risk and protective factors.


RESULTS
In the final models, weapon-carrying was associated significantly with one risk factor (substance use) and two protective factors (school connectedness, perceiving peers as having prosocial behavior attitudes/norms). With one risk factor and two protective factors, in various combinations in the models, the likelihood of weapon carrying ranged from 4% (with two protective factors and no risk factor in the model) to 80% of youth (with the risk factor and no protective factors in the model). Even in the presence of the risk factor, the two protective factors decreased the likelihood of weapon-carrying to 25%.


CONCLUSIONS
This analysis highlights the importance of protective factors in comprehensive assessments and interventions for vulnerable youth. In that the risk factor and two protective factors significantly related to weapon-carrying are amenable to intervention at both individual and population-focused levels, study findings offer a guide for prioritizing strategies for decreasing weapon-carrying among urban American Indian young people.
Bearinger
Linda H
LH
Center for Adolescent Nursing, School of Nursing, University of Minnesota, 308 Harvard Street, S.E., Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. beari001@umn.edu
Pettingell
Sandra L
SL
Resnick
Michael D
MD
Potthoff
Sandra J
SJ
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007198:Indians, North American / Q000523:psychology*; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008297:Male; D008910:Minnesota; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology; D010379:Peer Group; D012307:Risk Factors; D012925:Social Conformity; D012944:Social Support; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000208:ethnology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology; D014754:Violence / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D054041:Weapons