Weapon carrying on school property among middle school students

Variables Associated with Weapon-Carrying among Young Adolescents in Southern California

“…They speculate that the two possible explanations for this are normative expectations of others' behavior (i.e., students carry weapons because their peers carry weapons; they assume that this is common behavior) and bringing weapons to school in response to perceived threats to their safety. Findings from other studies, which are comparable with our study, indicate that adolescent weapon-carrying practices are associated with fear and worry for safety [7], being threatened with a weapon and fighting [8], and feelings of vulnerability [9].…”

Youth violence perpetration: What protects? What predicts? Findings from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health

“…In this national sample of students, an array of risk and protective factors, derived from theoretical and empirical studies of youth health and risky behaviors, were found to significantly increase or diminish the likelihood of involvement in serious violence perpetration approximately 1 year after baseline data collection. Factors predictive of interpersonal violence perpetration across one or both of the gender groups, including perpetrating or experiencing violence, weapon carrying, friend suicidal involvement, problems in school, poor physical and/or emotional health, and higher levels of alcohol and marijuana use have been described in other studies of youth, both cross-sectional and longitudinal [9,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. Among the predictors, the self-report of perpetrating as well as experiencing violence are particularly salient.…”

Testing Three Explanations of the Emergence of Weapon Carrying in Peer Context: The Roles of Aggression, Victimization, and the Social Network

“…Alternatively, weapon carrying may emerge as part of a larger category of problem behaviors [3,[15][16][17][18][19][20], particularly involvement in aggressive behaviors [16,19]. However, it has also been suggested that it is not so much being the initiator of aggression, rather it is being the target of aggression, that triggers weapon carrying as a defensive response [7,21].…”