RFA-CE-20-002

What to know

CDC funded two research awards focused on firearm-related injures under RFA-CE-20-002: Grants to support new investigators in conducting research related to preventing interpersonal violence impacting children and youth.

RFA-CE-20-002: grants to support new investigators in conducting research related to preventing interpersonal violence impacting children and youth (K01 grants)

This initiative is to provide support for an intensive, mentored career development experience in conducting violence prevention research. CDC supports K01 grants to help ensure the availability of an adequate number and diverse group of highly trained scientists to address critical public health research questions to prevent violence and injury.

These grants can help new investigators grow their skills by developing and conducting research related to violence prevention. This funding opportunity is specifically focused on addressing the interpersonal forms of violence impacting children or youth, including child abuse and neglect, youth violence, teen dating violence, and sexual violence. Proposed research could examine firearm-related behavior, crime, injuries and deaths among children and youth or include firearm-related behavior, crime, injuries, and deaths among children and youth as outcomes.

CDC awarded support to four recipients. Two of the recipients are focused on firearm-related research and their projects are described below.

Preventing youth violence through technology enhanced street outreach: a community-engaged approach

  • Two-year project: September 30, 2020 – September 29, 2022
  • Principal investigator: Dr. Caitlin Elsaesser, University of Connecticut Storrs
  • Year two award: $125,000

This study will gather formative and survey data to develop an intervention to reduce threats expressed via social media that have been implicated in firearm-related violence and other forms of youth violence.

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Social media dominates the social lives of modern youth, and threats are now being expressed via social media in a phenomenon referred to as "cyberbanging." While data suggest that cyberbanging is implicated in multiple forms of youth violence, including firearm-related violence, little is known about ways to prevent it. This study will gather formative data to develop a social media-based intervention to reduce cyberbanging implicated in youth violence by conducting focus groups with low-income urban adolescents and violence street outreach staff. It will explore social media behaviors, strategies to avoid cyberbanging, and preferences for social media-based interventions; leverage an existing study to gather survey data to describe social media habits, barriers/facilitators to cyberbanging and intervention preferences of this specific population; and draft messages and strategies for a future social media intervention to address threats implicated in violence. The study is designed to inform the development of a social media-based intervention that enhances street outreach programs to reduce cyberbanging implicated in youth violence. See updates.

Physical, social, and economic environments and firearm fatalities among youth

  • Two-year project: September 30, 2020 – September 29, 2022
  • Principal investigator: Dr. Rose Kagawa, University of California at Davis
  • Year two award: $124,119

This study will examine neighborhood-level exposures and how they work together to impact firearm violence.

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Important gaps remain in understanding the relative importance and joint effects on risk for firearm violence of exposures that make up the neighborhood environment. This study will use data from an ongoing investigation of demolition and rehabilitation of decaying properties in Cleveland, Ohio, and Detroit, Michigan, to describe the range of neighborhood-level exposures in each of these cities and to identify how these exposures work together to impact firearm violence. The study will describe variations in programs and polices across neighborhoods from 2010-2019; identify the neighborhood-level exposures that are most predictive of high levels of neighborhood youth firearm violence; and estimate effects of neighborhood interventions on rates of neighborhood violent crime, firearm-related crime, firearm homicides, and firearm suicides among youth and young adults ages 10-29. Describing the range of neighborhood exposures and their importance in predicting youth firearm violence can help improve understanding of how "place" affects violence and inform broad-based interventions with widespread and lasting impacts. See updates.
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Content Source:
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control