| Recently, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services established the reduction of weapon carrying by adolescents as a national objective for the year 2000. Although self-protection is the most common reason reported for weapon carrying, previous studies have focused primarily on the association between weapon carrying and participation in other problem behaviors. The fundamental objective for this dissertation was to determine the extent to which weapon carrying behavior is associated with "problem-prone" characteristics relative to the extent to which weapon carrying can be expressed as a function of vulnerability to victimization.;These correlates of weapon carrying were assessed across two contexts (in-school and outside of school), and two high school populations (continuation and comprehensive schools). Correlates of type of weapon carried and use of weapons also were examined among those respondents who reported carrying a weapon. The data for this study were obtained from three ethnically diverse samples of adolescents in southern California. The number of subjects in each sample ranged in size from 265 continuation high school students, to 542 continuation and comprehensive high school students, to 2,758 comprehensive high school students. Factor analysis, and multivariate linear and logistic regression analyses were used to test the hypothesized associations.;Alarmingly high rates of weapon carrying and use were observed. Problem-proneness, vulnerability to victimization, and peer weapon carrying were found to have strong independent associations with weapon carrying and weapon use (both contexts). Relative to knife canying, gun carrying was associated with significantly higher levels of problem-proneness and peer weapon carrying. Students also reported using a variety of socially acceptable crime avoidance strategies to reduce their perceptions of vulnerability to victimization (i.e., staying sober and avoiding unsafe people, places, and parties). Overall, these results indicate a need to lower actual and perceived vulnerability to victimization (i.e., increase use of avoidance strategies), and to address social influences regarding weapon carrying within a comprehensive intervention framework designed to offer skills and alternatives to help youth avoid participation in a variety of problem behaviors. |
