Individuals' Longitudinal Risks for Firearm Violence Perpetration and Victimization

PROJECT SUMMARY This K18 Career Enhancement Award will provide 2-years protected time for Dr. Christopher Morrison (Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, Columbia University) to become a leader in applied prevention science, with new content-area expertise in firearm injury prevention. A program of collaboration with four new senior colleagues, coursework, and research will allow him to accomplish three Training Objectives—A) to develop comprehensive skills in leadership in firearm violence prevention research and policy; B) to develop comprehensive skills in designing and implementing cohort studies; and C) to develop comprehensive skills in community engagement for firearm violence prevention. Dr. Morrison will accomplish this training in the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia University with a Visiting Scholar position at the Yale New Haven Hospital—Violence Intervention Program (YNHH-VIP). This training is tailored specifically to develop expertise necessary to advance the science of firearm violence prevention, including by leading the development of protocol for a multi-site prospective cohort study for people at risk of experiencing firearm violence. Preventing firearm violence is a high priority for research, but data are sparse. A social ecological systems framework provides a theoretical basis for understanding the complex processes that contribute to individuals’ risks for firearm violence victimization and perpetration, and emphasizes that contributors to firearm violence operate at multiple scales of organization (e.g., individuals, households, neighborhoods, cities, states) and over the lifecourse. To examine these complex processes we require longitudinal data collected at the individual level over many years, including detailed measurement of outcomes and theoretically relevant exposures related to firearm violence. We will use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), which is the largest longitudinal study in the US that includes measures of firearm violence perpetration and victimization, as well as critical contextual measures that are theoretically relevant for firearm violence prevention over the lifecourse. The specific aims are: 1) To assess longitudinal relationships between social ecological exposures during adolescence and trajectories of firearm violence perpetration into adulthood; 2) To assess longitudinal relationships between social ecological exposures and nonfatal firearm violence victimization over the lifecourse; and 3) To assess longitudinal relationships between social ecological exposures during adolescence and fatal firearm violence victimization into adulthood. Research activities will complement the collaboration and coursework portions of the proposed career development plan, provide ideal opportunities to apply new skills, and ultimately consolidate the candidate as a leading prevention scientist conducting high-impact studies, including expanding available interventions to reduce firearm violence.