15-39. Reduce weapon carrying by adolescents on school property.

Target: 6 percent.

Baseline: 8.5 percent of students in grades 9 through 12 carried weapons on school property during the past 30 days in 1997.

Target setting method: Better than the best.

Data source: Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), CDC, NCCDPHP.

DNA = Data have not been analyzed. DNC = Data are not collected. DSU = Data are statistically unreliable.

In 1998, physical assault victimization among adolescents took place twice as often as in the general population of persons age 12 years or older. Assaults were significantly higher among males. While the total assaults for blacks and whites and Hispanics and non-Hispanics were similar, aggravated assault was higher for blacks than whites (11.9 versus 7.0 per 1,000), and simple assault was higher for non-Hispanics than Hispanics (23.9 versus 19.5 per 1,000). Assaults were higher for those with lower household incomes; rates of assault victimization decreased from 54.2 per 1,000 persons in households with annual incomes of less than $7,500 to less than 30 per 1,000 persons in households with annual incomes greater than $35,000.(72a)

In 1997, 36.6 percent of students in grades 9 through 12 had been in a physical fight one or more times during the 12 months preceding the survey.(73) Overall, male students were significantly more likely than female students to have been in a physical fight. This difference was identified for all racial and ethnic and grade subgroups. Overall, African American and Hispanic students were more likely than white students to have been in a physical fight. Male and female students in grade 9 were more likely than male students in grades 11 and 12 and female students in grade 12 to have been in a physical fight. Male and female students in grade 10 were more likely than male and female students in grade 12 to report this behavior.

Weapon carrying on school property during the 30 days before the survey was 8.5 percent nationwide. Overall, male students were more likely than female students to have carried a weapon on school property. This difference was identified for white and Hispanic students and all grade subgroups. African American female students were more likely than Hispanic and white female students to have carried a weapon on school property.(74)

Violence prevention programs for youth need to focus on strategies that reduce involvement in physical fighting and discourage weapon carrying on school property. Strategies to reduce weapon carrying on school property, physical fighting, and resulting injuries among youth should begin early in life and must be tailored to youth of widely varying social, economic, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds.(75) As with other areas of violence and abuse, carefully controlled studies to evaluate the effectiveness of various strategies and interventions are needed. Physicians and other health professionals are in a position to provide effective primary prevention messages to youth and their families. Also, ED workers treating adolescents with fight-related injuries can practice secondary interventions, as they do with victims of child abuse, sexual assault, or attempted suicide.

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Rev. 19-Aug-2001 at 20:19 hours.