Measuring Exposure to Gun Violence and Risky Behavior: Psychometric Validation and Analysis of the Gun Violence...

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Psychometrics
• Criminology

Background:

• Gun violence is a significant public health issue in the US.
• Effective prevention requires better tools to identify at-risk individuals.
• Understanding bystander exposure is crucial for intervention.

Purpose of the Study:

• Introduce and validate the Gun Violence Exposure (Gun-X) Scale.
• Assess awareness of gun violence, threats, and risky behaviors in social networks.
• Provide a reliable measure for research and clinical screening.

Main Methods:

• Nationally representative sample of 5,311 youth and young adults (ages 10-34).
• Multi-method psychometric validation, including Item Response Theory (IRT).
• Assessed convergent and discriminant validity with related measures.

Main Results:

• The 10-item Gun-X Scale demonstrated a unidimensional structure with good reliability.
• IRT analyses showed high item discrimination and precision at moderate exposure levels.
• Validated against violence exposure, peer gun carrying, neighborhood risk, mental health, and social support.

Conclusions:

• The Gun-X Scale is a reliable and generalizable measure of bystander gun violence exposure.
• Useful for research, clinical screening, and informing prevention efforts.
• Aims to characterize exposure patterns for tailored, context-sensitive responses.