THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN WEAPON CARRYING AND THE USE OF VIOLENCE AMONGADOLESCENTS LIVING IN AND AROUND PUBLIC-HOUSING

Purpose: To test the hypothesis that adolescents who carry lethal weap ons are more likely to engage in violent behavior than adolescents who do not carry weapons. Design: Cross-sectional Survey. Subjects: Black adolescents (N = 225) from a lower socioeconomic (SES) background liv ing in or around nine Housing and Urban Development housing projects. Measurements: An anonymous questionnaire containing scales from the CD C Youth Risk Behavior Survey and Self-Reported Delinquency Questionnai re was administered. Data were analyzed with Spearman rho correlation coefficients (r), followed by partial correlation coefficients control ling for age and gender. Results: Thirty-five percent of males and 16% of females reported carrying a weapon during the previous 30 days. Fr equency of weapon-carrying was correlated (r = .33, p less than or equ al to 0.0001) with the frequency of physical fights in the last month, but the relationship was stronger among males than females. Weapon-ca rrying was also associated (r = .20, p less than or equal to 0.003) wi th frequency of receiving a serious injury during a fight and the freq uency of attacking someone with a weapon with the idea of seriously hu rting or killing them (r = .48, p less than or equal to 0.0001). Altho ugh males were more likely to carry a hidden weapon than females, the frequency of weapon-carrying was more highly correlated with the frequ ency of carrying a hidden weapon by females (r = .63, p less than or e qual to 0.0001) than males (r = .49, p less than or equal to 0.0001). Females who carried weapons were more likely than males to be involved in gang fights. Among males (r = .27, p less than or equal to 0.008), frequency of weapon-carrying was correlated with frequency of attacki ng someone with whom they lived. This was not so among females (r = .0 2). Conclusion: These data support the hypothesis that the lower SES b lack adolescents in this sample who carried weapons were more likely t o engage in violent behaviors than those who did not carry weapons.