The echo chamber effect on social media.

Social media may limit the exposure to diverse perspectives and favor the formation of groups of like-minded users framing and reinforcing a shared narrative, that is, echo chambers. However, the interaction paradigms among users and feed algorithms greatly vary across social media platforms. This paper explores the key differences between the main social media platforms and how they are likely to influence information spreading and echo chambers' formation. We perform a comparative analysis of more than 100 million pieces of content concerning several controversial topics (e.g., gun control, vaccination, abortion) from Gab, Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter. We quantify echo chambers over social media by two main ingredients: 1) homophily in the interaction networks and 2) bias in the information diffusion toward like-minded peers. Our results show that the aggregation of users in homophilic clusters dominate online interactions on Facebook and Twitter. We conclude the paper by directly comparing news consumption on Facebook and Reddit, finding higher segregation on Facebook.

Community exposure to gun homicide and adolescents' educational aspirations.

INTRODUCTION: Witnessing violence and violent victimization have detrimental effects on adolescents' emotional functioning and ability to envision and plan for their futures. However, research is limited on the impact of violence that occurs in adolescents' communities-whether or not it was witnessed or experienced firsthand. This paper investigated the associations between community exposure to gun homicide and adolescents' high school and college graduation aspirations. METHODS: We analyzed data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 3031), a cohort study of children born 1998-2000 in 20 large US cities, merged with incident-level data on deadly gun violence from the Gun Violence Archive (2014-2017). Outcomes were reported by adolescents (girls and boys) during wave 6 (2014-2017) of the study, conducted when the children were 15 years of age. We employed ordinary least squares regression, ordered logistic regression, and multilevel stratification to examine the average and heterogeneous impacts of community exposure to gun homicide on adolescents' educational aspirations. RESULTS: Community exposure to gun homicide was associated with reduced high school graduation aspirations, particularly among adolescents with the lowest risk of exposure to gun homicide. Gun homicide exposure was also associated with increased college graduation aspirations; this association was concentrated among adolescents with moderate-high risk of exposure. CONCLUSIONS: Given the importance of education for job opportunities and the better health that accompanies education and occupational attainment, preventing early exposure to gun violence and providing institutional supports to help adolescents facing adversity realize their goals is essential to their long-term health and success.

Association of Gun Violence With Emergency Department Visits for Stress-Responsive Complaints.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: We evaluate the association between living near a neighborhood shooting and emergency department (ED) utilization for stress-responsive complaints. METHODS: In this location-based before-and-after neighborhood study, we examined variability in ED encounter volume for stress-responsive complaints after neighborhood shooting incidents around 2 academic hospitals. We included patients residing within 1/8- and 1/2-mile-diameter buffers around a shooting (place) if their ED encounter occurred 7, 30, or 60 days before or after the shooting (time). Prespecified outcomes were stress-responsive complaints (chest pain, lightheadedness, syncope, hypertension, shortness of breath, asthma, anxiety, depression, and substance use) based on prior literature for stress-responsive diseases. Conditional logistic regression was used to calculate the odds of presentation to the ED with a stress-responsive complaint after, compared with before, a neighborhood shooting incident. RESULTS: Between January 2013 and December 2014, 513 shooting incidents and 19,906 encounters for stress-responsive complaints were included in the analysis. Mean age was 50.3 years (SD 22.3 years), 61.5% were women, and 91% were black. We found increased odds of presenting with syncope in 2 place-time buffers: 30 days in the 1/8-mile buffer (odds ratio 2.61; 99% confidence interval 1.2 to 5.67) and 60 days in 1/8-mile buffer (odds ratio 1.56; 99% confidence interval 0.99 to 2.46). No other chief complaints met our statistical threshold for significance. CONCLUSION: This study evaluated the relationship between objectively measured gun violence exposure and short-term health effect at a microspatial scale. Overall, this was a study with largely negative results, and we did not find any consistent dose-response pattern in time or space regarding neighborhood shootings and stress-responsive presentations to the ED. Theoretic links make this relationship plausible, however, and further investigation is needed to understand the short-term health consequences of violence exposure, and whether those vary based on the circumstances that are experienced inherently by residents of a given neighborhood.

Exposure to Gun Violence: Associations with Anxiety, Depressive Symptoms, and Aggression among Male Juvenile Offenders.

Objective: To examine whether at-risk male youth experience increases in anxiety, depressive symptoms, and aggression during years when they are exposed to gun violence, adjusting for relevant covariates.Method: Participants were 1,216 male, justice-involved adolescents who were recently arrested for the first time for a moderate offense. They were interviewed 9 times over 5 years. Fixed effects (within-individual) regression models were used to estimate concurrent associations between exposure to gun violence and three outcomes: depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and aggression (both overall and separately for proactive and reactive aggression). The reverse direction (anxiety, depressive symptoms, and aggression predicting gun violence exposure) was also modeled.Results: After controlling for covariates, exposure to gun violence was significantly associated with increases in reactive aggression and, to a lesser extent, increases in proactive aggression. In addition, gun violence exposure was associated with increased anxiety but not depressive symptoms. We found no support for the reverse direction.Conclusions: At-risk males experienced significant increases in anxiety and aggression (particularly reactive aggression) during years when they are exposed to gun violence, even after accounting for several potential confounding factors. The greater impact on reactive aggression suggests that exposure to gun violence may affect self-regulation and/or social information processing. The analyses shed light on the less-visible damage wrought by gun violence and underscore the importance of mental health screening and treatment for youth who have been exposed to violence - especially gun violence - both to assist individual youths and to disrupt cycles of violence.

Extreme Risk Protection Orders in Washington : A Statewide Descriptive Study.

BACKGROUND: In the United States, 74% of homicides and 51% of suicides involve firearms. Using extreme risk protection order (ERPO) laws, petitioners can request restricting firearm access for individuals (known as "respondents") who pose a risk to themselves or others. OBJECTIVE: To characterize respondents and circumstances of ERPOs. DESIGN: Descriptive study. SETTING: State of Washington. PARTICIPANTS: All ERPO respondents during 8 December 2016 to 10 May 2019. MEASUREMENTS: Reason for filing the ERPO; characteristics of respondents; respondent's reported history of domestic violence perpetration, mental illness, substance misuse, and suicide ideation or attempt; number and type of firearms removed; and ERPO petition outcome (granted or not granted). RESULTS: The ERPOs were filed for concerns about harm to self (n = 67), harm to others (n = 86), or harm to both self and others (n = 84). Of all ERPOs, 87% were filed by law enforcement and 81% were granted. At least 1 firearm was removed from 64% of respondents, with a total of 641 firearms removed. The petitioner reported prior domestic violence perpetration by the respondent in 24% of cases, and a prior diagnosis of a mental health condition and substance misuse for the respondent in 40% and 47% of cases, respectively. Of all respondents, 62% had a history of suicidal ideation or attempt according to the petitioner. As part of the ERPO process, the court ordered mental health evaluation in 30% of cases. LIMITATION: Filing of the forms was inconsistent. CONCLUSION: Laws regarding ERPOs are a potential tool to help protect patients or family members from harming themselves or others by restricting firearm possession and purchase. Further studies are needed to determine the long-term effects of these laws and identify approaches to increase their use. PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE: State of Washington.

Physician Involvement in Promoting Gun Safety.

Firearm-related deaths are on the rise in the United States, especially among our youth. Tragically, proper firearm storage and safety could have prevented a great number of these deaths. Professional and public health organizations have thus encouraged physicians to provide direct patient counseling on firearm safety. Yet, even with these recommendations, the majority of physicians are still not talking to their patients about this issue. There may be many reasons for this, including concerns about liability, feeling unprepared, patient discomfort, and lack of time during office visits. Despite these concerns, we argue that physicians have an ethical obligation to discuss firearm safety with their patients. Making these discussions a part of routine clinical care would go a long way in the bipartisan effort to protect public safety and improve public health.

Correlates of gun violence by criminal justice-involved adolescents.

OBJECTIVE: This study presents a prospective evaluation of the contribution of criminogenic factors, psychiatric symptomatology, and neighborhood-level factors to risk for self-reported gun violence by adolescents with criminal justice involvement. HYPOTHESIS: We hypothesized that elevated psychiatric symptom clusters would be associated with increased risk for gun violence after accounting for criminogenic factors and that neighborhood contextual variables would contribute independently to gun violence risk controlling for criminogenic and psychiatric factors. METHOD: Data were drawn from the Pathways to Desistance study (Mulvey et al., 2004), a previously collected, longitudinal evaluation of 1,354 adolescents with felony or weapons-based misdemeanor convictions. Participants were located in Arizona and Pennsylvania and aged 14-18 at baseline. The majority identified as male (86.4%) and Black (41.4%) or Hispanic (33.5%). Participants completed interviews at baseline and follow-up over 7 years. This study drew indicators of criminogenic factors, psychiatric factors, ratings of neighborhood context, and self-reported offending. We used discrete time survival analysis to prospectively evaluate the contribution of independent variables to time to gun violence. RESULTS: The presence of self-reported threat control override symptoms represented a 56% increase in risk controlling for demographic and criminogenic factors, odds ratio = 1.56, 95% confidence interval [1.11, 2.18]. Ratings of higher neighborhood gun accessibility represented almost 2.5 times increased risk for self-reported gun violence controlling for demographic, criminogenic, and psychiatric factors, odds ratio = 2.48, 95% confidence interval [1.60, 3.85]. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that consideration of both environmental and individual-level factors hold importance for management of community risk and public safety for adolescents with criminal justice involvement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Dangerous weapons or dangerous people? The temporal associations between gun violence and mental health.

Despite the public, political, and media narrative that mental health is at the root of gun violence, evidence is lacking to infer a causal link. This study examines the temporal associations between gun violence (i.e., threatening someone with a gun and gun carrying) and mental health (i.e., anxiety, depression, stress, PTSD, hostility, impulsivity, and borderline personality disorder) as well the cross-sectional associations with gun access and gun ownership in a group of emerging adults. Waves 6 (2015) and 8 (2017) data were used from a longitudinal study in Texas, US. Participants were 663 emerging adults (61.7% female) including 33.6% self-identified Hispanics, 26.0% white, 27.0% Black, and 13.4% other, with an average age of 22 years. Multivariate logistic regression indicated that, individuals who had gun access were 18.15 times and individuals with high hostility were 3.51 times more likely to have threatened someone with a gun, after controlling for demographic factors and prior mental health treatment. Individuals who had gun access were 4.74 times, individuals who reported gun ownership were 5.22 times, and individuals with high impulsivity were 1.91 times more likely to have carried a gun outside of their homes, after controlling for prior gun carrying, mental health treatment, and demographic factors. Counter to public beliefs, the majority of mental health symptoms examined were not related to gun violence. Instead, access to firearms was the primary culprit. The findings have important implications for gun control policy efforts.

Gun Violence Exposure and Posttraumatic Symptoms Among Children and Youth.

Although statistics on youth homicide and injury from gun violence are available, little research has focused on how gun violence overlaps with other victimizations or on the psychological impact of gun violence on children. Pilot survey data were collected on the experiences of 630 U.S. children (age range: 2-17 years) from Boston, Philadelphia, and rural areas of eastern Tennessee. Youth aged 10-17 years completed a self-report survey on a wide range of gun violence exposures, and parents of younger children (aged 2-9 years) completed the survey as a proxy for that child. Direct gun violence exposure, witnessing gun violence, and hearing gunshots were all significantly associated with other forms of victimization, rs = .10-.38, p < .001. The findings suggest that youth who experience direct gun violence are often exposed to multiple violent contexts. For older youth (ages 10-17 years) polyvictimization was most strongly associated with posttraumatic symptoms, ß = .35, p < .001, although witnessing gun violence still uniquely predicted a higher level of symptoms, ß = .18, p < .01. For younger children (ages 2-9 years), hearing and witnessing gun violence were both related to posttraumatic symptoms, ß = .15, p < .01 for both, even after controlling for polyvictimization. Mental health professionals and trauma-informed services should be mindful that the traumatic impact of gun violence for children may not necessarily be attached to direct victimization experiences but may also result from simply seeing or hearing it in their neighborhoods.

Neighborhood Gun Violence and Birth Outcomes in Chicago.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the association between gun violence and birth outcomes among women in Chicago. METHODS: Using a 5-year set of birth files (2011-2015) merged with census and police data, birth outcomes including low birth weight (LBW, BW < 2500 g), preterm birth (PTB, < 37 weeks gestation), and small-for-gestational-age (SGA, BW < 10th percentile) were examined among non-Hispanic (NH) white, NH black, and Hispanic women in Chicago. Gun violence rates were categorized into tertiles. Multilevel, multiple logistic regression examined the effects of gun violence and race/ethnicity on birth outcomes. RESULTS: Of 175,065 births, 10.6% of LBW, 10.6% of PTB, and 9.1% of SGA occurred in high violence tertile. Using white women in low violence tertile as reference, the OR for LBW among black women ranged 1.9-2.1 across all tertiles, and 0.8-1.2 among Hispanic women. OR for PTB for black women were 1.6-1.7 and 1.0-1.2 for Hispanic women, and OR for SGA for black women were 1.6-1.7 and for Hispanic women 0.9-1.0. CONCLUSIONS FOR PRACTICE: In Chicago, race/ethnicity was associated with birth outcomes, regardless of the level of exposure to gun violence, in 2011-2015. The differences in racial/ethnic composition across the violence exposure levels suggest that, rather than gun violence alone, residential segregation and the geographic inequities likely contribute to disparate birth outcomes.

Why urban teens turn to guns: urban teens' own words on gun violence.

OBJECTIVES: Missing from the discussion of youth and gun violence are qualitative data from diverse youth regarding their perspectives on gun violence in their communities and what will help prevent or reduce such violence. The purpose of this exploratory study was therefore to gain a deeper understanding of urban teens' perceptions of gun violence in the context of their daily lives and gather their ideas for reducing or preventing gun violence through meaningful discussions with urban teens. STUDY DESIGN: Focus group discussions. METHODS: A total of 29 urban teens aged between 14 and 18 years participated in two separate focus group discussions between August 2016 and July 2017. Participants engaged in an open-ended discussion guided by 12 semistructured questions that addressed their perceptions of community safety, the need to carry a gun, police relations, the need for community change, and their ideas to reduce gun violence and help make their communities safer. Data were analyzed using a thematic approach. RESULTS: Teens' perceptions of racism and poor relations with the police are tied to gun violence, while they identified the need for better relations with the police and meaningful, long-term relationships with adults as factors to help prevent or reduce gun violence. CONCLUSIONS: Long-term reductions in community violence will not occur until larger social issues are addressed. While waiting for these concerns to be addressed, secondary prevention, including mentoring programs and other efforts to build meaningful relationships between adults and teens can foster teen resilience and activism in the face of gun violence.

Youth Responses to School Shootings: a Review.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This paper aims to synthesize research relating to youth responses to school shootings between 2014 and 2017. The main questions it addresses are how such events impact young people psychologically, and what risk or protective factors may contribute to different trajectories of recovery? RECENT FINDINGS: Recent research suggests that most young people exposed to school shootings demonstrate resilience, exhibiting no long-term dysfunction. However, a minority will experience severe and chronic symptoms. The likelihood of experiencing clinically significant reactions is influenced by pre-trauma functioning as well as peri-traumatic and post-traumatic factors. These include proximity to the trauma, peri-traumatic dissociation, post-traumatic emotional regulation difficulties, social support, and flexibility of coping styles. Research that separates the distinguishing features of young people with differing recovery styles is vital to tailor intervention. But methodological and design issues associated with such research necessitates caution in drawing conclusions. Variation in definitions and measures and the self-report nature of many of the studies are potential sources of bias. Greater uniformity across designs would enhance confidence and allow for improved evidence-based intervention.

Assessing and managing threats to commit a massacre.

Lone actor attacks like those at Port Arthur and Parklands High School Florida remain rare events though more frequent year by year. Psychiatrist are unlikely to see such killers either before or after an attack. What they do encountered on occasion are patients threatening to commit such a massacre. These threats need to be taken seriously primarily because they usually indicate significant distress but also because there is a remote chance they may try and act on the threat. Threats state an intention with the chances of enactment depending on the degree of commitment. Commitment is reflected in the level of preoccupation, plausibility, planning and preparation. Most threats have no commitment to act being an end in themselves motivated by such things as the desire to express an emotion, the wish to frighten, the attempt to manipulate others, though just occasionally they are a warning with some level of commitment to act. The assessment of threats to commit a massacre is considered in terms of the motivation and apparent commitment. Those who threaten mass killings also differ significantly from Lone Actor Attackers in their clinical pictures which further assists assessment of risk. There are some where doubts remain about the level of threat they present. The management of this group is discussed.

A Narrative Inquiry Into the Experience of Being a Victim of Gun Violence.

The purpose of this study was to gain a greater understanding of gun violence from the victim's personal story. The design for the study was narrative inquiry. Sixteen victims of gun violence were interviewed and asked to tell their story. The interview format comprised open-ended interview questions that encouraged participants to tell their stories. The method was narrative inquiry; the victims were encouraged to tell their story. The interview was recorded and transcribed. The transcripts of the interviews were the data for the study. Multiple readings allowed themes to emerge and provided a means of classifying the content. The data were organized by a categorical-content perspective as described by . Four themes emerged that captured the study participants' experience: prevailing nature of everyday violence; feeling abandoned by the institutions of society; living in a context of reactive violence fueled by poverty; lack of employable skills and education; and evolving psychological effect following gun violence. The study provided insight into the personal experience of gun violence. Victims of gun violence experience challenges related to poverty, deficient educational preparation, and community neglect. The presence of gun violence in their neighborhoods has had an everlasting impact on their well-being. Gun violence is a major public health crisis. Thousands of people are killed or injured daily by guns. It is crucial that appropriate interventions be created. Partnerships between neighborhood leaders, health care professionals, and politicians need to be developed and fostered.

The Curious (Dis)Connection between the Opioid Epidemic and Crime.

Drug epidemics often bring with them an accompanying rise in crime. The heroin wave of the 1970's and crack crisis of the 1980's were each accompanied by major gun violence, including large numbers of murders and violent property crimes. The current United States opioid epidemic, however, has not been associated with either a rise in homicide or in property crime. In fact, crime rates have been declining for decades, and are now less than half their 1991 peak, despite an unprecedented spike of opioid overdose deaths that began in the late 1990's. These facts do not fit with the usual narrative about the link between drug addiction and criminal behavior. While the drugs-crime connection has always been far more nuanced than the way it is typically portrayed, there wasn't such a glaring disconnect between reality and mythology during the drug epidemics of the 1970's and 1980's. The mystery of the missing opioid crime explosion offers unique insight into the myths and realities of drug addiction. To explore this issue further, this commentary briefly summarizes the drugs-crime connection, contrasts the current opioid crisis with drug epidemics of the past, and provides possible explanations for the absence of an opioid-fueled crime wave.