RFA-CE-20-006: 3-year awards

What to know

CDC funded sixteen research awards under RFA-CE-20-006: Research Grants to Prevent Firearm-Related Violence and Injuries. Research projects were funded for two or three years. This page lists the projects that received funding for three years.

RFA-CE-20-006: Research grants to prevent firearm-related violence and injuries

The purpose of this initiative is to solicit investigator-initiated research to understand and prevent firearm-related injuries, deaths, and crime. For the purposes of this NOFO, firearm-related injuries, deaths, and crime include mass shooting incidents, other firearm homicides/assaults, firearm suicides/self-harm, unintentional firearm deaths and injuries, and firearm-related crime.

RFA-CE-20-006 is intended to directly improve understanding of firearm-related violence and promising prevention approaches by supporting activities under one or both of the following two research objectives:

  • Objective one: Research to help inform the development of innovative and promising opportunities to enhance safety and prevent firearm-related injuries, deaths, and crime.
  • Objective two: Research to rigorously evaluate the effectiveness of innovative and promising strategies to keep individuals, families, schools, and communities safe from firearm-related injuries, deaths, and crime.

IntERact: preventing risky firearm behaviors among urban youth seeking emergency department care

  • Three-year project: September 30, 2020 – September 29, 2023
  • Principal investigator: Dr. Patrick Carter, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
  • Year three award: $649,997

This study will determine the effectiveness of IntERact, a technology-enhanced behavioral intervention, in reducing risky firearm behaviors, firearm carriage and violence, and co-occurring mental health and behavioral risks among youth seeking treatment in an emergency department.

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Intervening early with youth who are engaged in risky firearm behaviors when they are seen in urban emergency departments has the potential to decrease subsequent firearm violence, but additional evidence of effectiveness is needed. This study will conduct a randomized controlled trial of IntERact, a technology-enhanced behavioral intervention program, in reducing risky firearm behavior and violence in youth ages 16-24 who are seen in the emergency department and have reported recent firearm carriage and smartphone ownership. IntERact uses remotely delivered behavioral therapy and care management combined with a supportive smartphone app to facilitate therapist contact, just-in-time GPS-triggered notifications upon entry into high-risk areas, and enhanced care management access. This study will determine the effectiveness, including cost benefits, of the IntERact intervention and the potential for broader public health impact. See updates.

Multi-site external validation and improvement of a clinical screening tool for future firearm violence

  • Three-year project: September 30, 2020 – September 29, 2023
  • Principal investigator: Dr. Jason Goldstick, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
  • Year three award: $649,899

This study will use cutting-edge machine learning methods to optimize the ability to assess youth risk for firearm violence so that prevention resources and emergency department interventions can be used efficiently.

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Interventions in clinical settings, such as the emergency department, are an opportunity for interpersonal firearm violence prevention, particularly among youth. A crucial prerequisite to successful clinical interventions is an accurate gauge of risk. This prospective longitudinal study will validate the SAFETY clinical screening tool by determining its ability to predict youth firearm violence involvement within the next year and improve the SAFETY score by conducting a comparative analysis of four powerful machine learning methods. The results from this work will lay the groundwork for future research involving the development and testing of interventions for interpersonal firearm violence both by identifying potential high-leverage modifiable predictive factors and by identifying youth most in need of intervention. See updates.

An evaluation of the gun shop project: suicide prevention led by the firearms community

  • Three-year project: September 30, 2020 – September 29, 2023
  • Principal investigator: Dr. Sabrina Mattson, University of Colorado
  • Year three award: $649,988

This study is looking at gun shop projects, community-driven suicide prevention partnerships, to better understand how they impact firearm safety behaviors and suicides involving firearms.

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This study examines the implementation and impact of gun shop projects. Gun shop projects are community-driven suicide prevention partnerships between the firearms community (retailers, ranges, and other businesses) and local public or community health agencies aimed at temporarily reducing access to firearms during times of crisis. The research team will identify the implementation core components of gun shop projects, examine the mechanisms for firearm safety behavior change, and examine the impact they may have on suicide outcomes. Study results will advance scientific knowledge on involving the firearms community in suicide prevention efforts as a way to optimize implementation of community-level means reduction and safe storage strategies. See updates.

Participatory action research to inform a social-ecological model of gun-related attitudes, behaviors, and practices

  • Three-year project: September 30, 2020 – September 29, 2023
  • Principal investigator: Dr. Phillip Smith, University of South Alabama
  • Year three award: $642,872

This study is looking at risky gun-related behaviors and the acceptability of specific approaches to prevention for populations at greatest risk for homicide (African American boys and young men) and suicide (older White men).

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Current approaches to prevent gun injury are limited in their ability to reach those at highest risk, which may be due to the cultural disconnect between gun injury prevention strategies and the populations at greatest risk for violence and suicide. This study uses a mixed-methods participatory action research approach to improve understanding of the factors underlying risky gun-related attitudes, behaviors, and practices and to identify the acceptability of specific approaches to prevention for two distinct groups at risk for homicide (African American boys and young men) and suicide (older White men). Through the use of interviews and surveys, the research team will identify methods of gun access or acquisition, storage, and carrying; motivations for gun access, ownership, storage practices, use, and carrying; attitudes about ownership, storage safety, use, and carrying; acceptability of gun-focused prevention strategies; and ideas for novel prevention strategies. The results of this work will advance prevention science by creating a culturally grounded social-ecological model that can guide research on risk and protective factors for intentional gun-related injuries and inform the development of public health interventions. See updates.

Reframing firearm injury prevention through bystander interventions for youth shooting sports participants

  • Three-year project: September 30, 2020 – September 29, 2023
  • Principal investigator: Dr. Nicole Nugent, Brown University
  • Year three award: $649,986

This study will evaluate the effectiveness of a bystander intervention in changing firearm injury prevention norms, attitudes, intentions, and behaviors among a sample of 50 4-H Shooting Sports Club communities.

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Modifiable risk factors for youth firearm injury and death include unsafe storage of a firearm in the home, prior victimization/aggression, substance use, and depressive symptoms, yet there are few partnerships with firearm owners and firearm safety training programs to implement effective, non-policy-based preventive interventions for youth firearm injury. This study will conduct a hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial to evaluate the effectiveness of The Reframe, a bystander intervention designed to promote changes in firearm injury prevention norms, attitudes, intentions, and behaviors among a sample of 50 4-H Shooting Sports Club communities comprising both adults and youth. This project is designed to build the evidence base for interventions that promote safe behaviors related to youth firearm use and injury prevention and advance firearm injury prevention science by supporting a synergistic partnership between well-established firearm injury, suicide, and violence prevention researchers and the national 4-H Shooting Sports community. See updates.

Culture, longitudinal patterns, and safety promotion of handgun carrying among rural adolescents: implications for injury prevention

  • Three-year project: September 30, 2020 – September 29, 2023
  • Principal investigator: Dr. Ali Rowhani-Rahbar, University of Washington
  • Year three award: $453,262

This study will identify the context, antecedents, and consequences of handgun carrying among adolescents who reside in rural communities in order to inform culturally appropriate and community-specific interventions.

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Rural communities have high levels of firearm access and mortality, yet they are understudied and underserved. This study will utilize existing data and collect new data from rural adolescents to improve understanding of the cultural and environmental context within which handgun carrying occurs, identify developmental patterns of handgun carrying during adolescence and as youth transition to adulthood, examine the salient antecedents and consequences of this behavior, and test the effects of the Communities That Care prevention system. This project is intended to inform the development, adoption, and refinement of non-punitive prevention approaches to address factors that influence handgun carrying and reduce the burden of firearm-related injury among youth in rural communities. See updates.

ShootSafe: an interactive web platform to teach children hunting, shooting, and firearms safety

  • Three-year project: September 30, 2020 – September 29, 2023
  • Principal investigator: Dr. David Schwebel, University of Alabama at Birmingham
  • Year three award: $650,000

This project will develop and evaluate ShootSafe, a website designed to teach children how to engage safely with firearms to reduce risk for unintentional pediatric firearm-related injuries and deaths.

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Firearm-related injuries present a major pediatric public health challenge in the United States. This project will develop and evaluate ShootSafe, a website accessible by smartphone, tablet, or computer that engages children to learn firearms safety. ShootSafe will use interactive games, activities, and videos to teach children the knowledge and skills they need to hunt, shoot, and use firearms safely. It will also be designed to help children learn and hone the critical cognitive skills of impulse control and hypothetical thinking needed to use firearms safely and alter children's perceptions about their own vulnerability and susceptibility to firearm-related injuries, the severity of those injuries, and their perceived norms about peer behavior surrounding firearms. Once developed, the website will be evaluated in a randomized controlled trial with children ages 10-12. Results from the study will have implications for strategies to reduce unintentional pediatric firearms-related injuries and deaths. See updates.

Firearm involvement in adolescent children of formerly incarcerated parents: a prospective intergenerational study of resilience within families

  • Three-year project: September 30, 2020 – September 29, 2023
  • Principal investigator: Dr. Linda Teplin, Northwestern University at Chicago
  • Year three award: $649,762

This study will use prospective and intergenerational data to examine differences within and between families in risk and protective factors for youth involvement with firearms.

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Many juvenile offenders become parents when young and their children are likely to be at significant risk for firearm involvement and victimization. Yet there are remarkably few data on how parents' involvement with firearms during their own adolescence and young adulthood influences their children's risk for firearm involvement. This prospective and intergenerational study will examine patterns of concordance and discordance between siblings; examine the influence of parents' firearm involvement on their children's involvement, focusing on differences between siblings; and identify risk and protective factors that explain within- and between-family differences. Findings are intended to help guide the development and adaptation of preventive interventions for the highest risk families. See updates.

Preventing retaliatory gun violence in violently injured adults: a randomized control trial of hospital-based intervention

  • Three-year project: September 30, 2020 – September 29, 2023
  • Principal investigator: Dr. Nicholas Thomson, Virginia Commonwealth University
  • Year three award: $649,769

This study will determine the effectiveness of a hospital-based violence prevention program for reducing risk of firearm-related violence and injury in adult victims of violence.

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Violently injured adults are not only victims in the present but are also likely to be violently re-injured and at increased risk of committing retaliatory violence. Hospital-based violence intervention programs have become increasingly popular because of their success at engaging individuals who have suffered a violent injury. This study will conduct a randomized controlled trial to evaluate Bridging the Gap, a strategy that includes a hospital-based violence intervention, a firearm counseling program, and six months of community case management for victims of violence. The study will include a cost-benefit analysis to determine the economic benefits of implementing Bridging the Gap. Results from this study will help determine the effectiveness of Bridging the Gap as a firearm-related violence intervention for adult victims of violence. See updates.
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Content Source:
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control