2023 · Study · English

Effect of the Communities That Care Prevention System on Adolescent Handgun Carrying

Rowhani-Rahbar, A., Oesterle, S., Gause, E. L., Kuklinski, M. R., Ellyson, A. M., Schleimer, J. P., Dalve, K., Weybright, E. H., Briney, J. S., & Hawkins, J. D.

Rowhani-Rahbar, A., Oesterle, S., Gause, E. L., Kuklinski, M. R., Ellyson, A. M., Schleimer, J. P., Dalve, K., Weybright, E. H., Briney, J. S., & Hawkins, J. D. (2023). Effect of the Communities That Care Prevention System on Adolescent Handgun Carrying. JAMA Network Open, 6(4), e236699. doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.6699

Summary

Secondary analysis of the Community Youth Development Study, the cluster-randomised trial of Communities That Care in 24 small towns across seven US states, asking whether the system reduces handgun carrying among rural adolescents (NCT01088542). A cohort of 4,407 pupils was enrolled in grade 5 (77% of those eligible) and surveyed annually through grade 12 between 2003 and 2011, with 92% retention. Across grades 6 to 12, 15.5% of young people in CTC communities and 20.7% in control communities reported carrying a handgun at least once. The odds of past-year carrying were significantly lower in CTC communities at any given grade (OR 0.73; 95% CI 0.65–0.82), most clearly in grades 7 to 9, and cumulatively through grade 12 (OR 0.76; 95% CI 0.70–0.84), reductions of 27% and 24% respectively. The finding matters beyond the US because CTC did not target weapons at all: the effect emerged from working on shared risk and protective factors.