Changing Youth Narratives on Firearm Violence: A Community Collaborative Intervention - Phases 1 and 2
George Washington University
Summary
The Run It Up project is an experimental, theory-driven effort to address a specific connection between structural factors, youth identity development, and violence, where structural factors in some communities may limit adolescent beliefs about potential life-trajectories ("possible selves"), and foreground potential trajectories that include violence as integral. The intervention seeks to counter that dynamic by: 1) identifying alternative, non-violent identity trajectories that have attributes meaningful for youth and actualizing those trajectories through a community support structure; and 2) developing and disseminating multiple media products featuring narratives about these alternative trajectories. The goal is to change the calculation of possible selves for adolescents in the identity development stage through the introduction, and actualization, of desirable, tangible trajectories that do not involve violence or pro-violence norms, resulting in a reduction of youth involvement in firearm violence. The intervention and research is being conducted through a partnership between the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health and the Washington, DC community of Washington Highlands, and is funded through a grant from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD). In the first phase, formative research was completed to identify attributes and alternative non-violent trajectories, determine intervention elements, develop an intervention "brand" representing the attributes, develop a baseline-follow-up survey measuring theoretical mediators/moderators, outcomes, and other potential influencing factors, and identify community data to be used for a time-series analysis. Now in the second phase, the baseline data from a sample of community youth and parents/guardians are currently being collected prior to implementing the intervention. Evaluation is a two group, quasi-experimental community cohort design using survey and community-level data.
Description
The overall design for the intervention evaluation is a two group, quasi-experimental community cohort design with a pretest (baseline) and multiple post-tests (follow-ups). A baseline survey and two follow-ups of 12-16-year-old youth and one parent/guardian per youth will be collected in the intervention and comparison communities, separately measuring a number of resilience, risk-related and demographic variables, hypothesized mediators/moderators linked to the intervention and its theory of change, intervention and related media exposure, and self-report outcomes. The comparison community (…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 12+ years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria: • Resident of intervention community, within age limits Exclusion Criteria: • Not resident of intervention community, outside of age limits
Interventions
- BehavioralChanging narrative intervention modules
Training and mentoring of 12-16 year old youth in non-violent personal/career trajectories, supported by a social media campaign and a community steering committee.
Location
- George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public HealthWashington D.C., District of Columbia