RFA-CE-23-005: Research grants to inform firearm-related violence and injury prevention strategies
This initiative supports research to inform the development or improvement of prevention programs, policies, or practices that have the potential to substantially reduce firearm-related violence, injuries, death, or crime within populations or settings experiencing elevated risk.
Pathways to firearm violence perpetration: the role of schools, social welfare, and justice systems during the formative school years
- Two-year project: September 30, 2023 – September 29, 2025
- Principal investigator: Lynette Renner, University of Minnesota
- First-year award: $349,601
This project is a longitudinal study of youth trajectories to firearm violence perpetration, with the overall objective to conduct research to inform opportunities to enhance safety and prevent firearm-related injuries, death, and crime.
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Firearm violence impacts some populations more than others, and youth who are at increased risk for violence are overrepresented in school discipline and justice systems. This study will retrospectively follow 1.4 million children enrolled in Minnesota K-12 public schools for over 15 critical years of their development. Researchers will link school data with other data from Minnesota Department of Human Services and the State Court Administrator's Office. They plan to measure how early forms of school violence escalate to future firearm violence and identify how involvement with the social welfare system impacts firearm violence. The findings will help inform how the formative school years, adolescence, and emerging adulthood affect firearm violence.
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Firearm safety and injury prevention during early childhood: a parent engagement approach
- Three-year project: September 30, 2023 – September 29, 2026
- Principal investigator: Allison Miller, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
- First-year award: $649,828
This study will engage parents of young children (ages zero to five years) with a mixed-methods, community-based approach to develop and pilot an intervention among firearm-owning parents with young children to inform prevention of unintentional firearm injury and death in early childhood.
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Firearm-related injuries recently became the leading cause of death among children in the U.S., and children under five years old are among the largest age groups impacted by unintentional firearm injury. Unsafe firearm storage is a leading cause of firearm-related injury and death among young children, so more can be learned about improving safety practices. This study will help improve understanding about the scope and motivations for gun ownership, storage, and use among parents with young children. Using behavioral and decision science with community partners as messengers, this study will assess what parents know about firearm safety and injury prevention during early childhood. Findings from this project will inform a parent-driven firearm injury prevention program for parents of young children.
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Longitudinal mixed-methods study of firearms among ethnically diverse adolescents and young adults
- Three-year project: September 30, 2023 – September 29, 2026
- Principal investigator: Jeff Temple, The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
- First-year award: $649,465
This study will expand and extend an ongoing 15-year longitudinal study of adolescent health among ethnically and socioeconomically diverse participants to examine experiences with firearms and risk and protective factors.
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Since firearm injury and violence are costly and risk for all forms of violence begins early in life, prevention efforts are needed that start early and are specific to audience, gender, race/ethnicity, life stage, and developmental phases. This research will do several things. It will expand a long-term survey and will conduct in-depth interviews with those who carry firearms to better understand their ideas, practices, contexts, and experiences of acquiring, carrying, using, sharing, and storing firearms. Additionally, the research will identify key individual, behavioral, situational, trauma-related, and community risk factors for firearm injury and violence and compile findings into easily understandable language and summaries. Findings will directly benefit communities by informing schools and communities with more tailored violence prevention approaches for adolescents and young adults.
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Evaluating economic security policies to prevent firearm-related violence and injuries among black youth
- Three-year project: September 30, 2023 – September 29, 2026
- Principal investigator: Briana Woods-Jaeger, Emory University
- First-year award: $489,565
This study will evaluate economic security policies such as minimum wages, the Earned Income Tax Credit, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as primary prevention strategies for firearm violence among Black youth and young adults.
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This study will evaluate the effectiveness of economic security policies (minimum wages, the Earned Income Tax Credit, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) as primary prevention strategies for firearm violence among Black youth and young adults 10-34 years old. The study will also involve conducting interviews with Black youth and young adults 10-34 years old who have been injured by firearms and their primary caregivers who live in environments that have fewer of these economic policies. The study will evaluate economic security policies, focusing on whether existing policies are effective for primary prevention among those most impacted by firearm violence.
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