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This study identified risk, promotive, and protective factors for handgun carriage among 265 primarily African American adolescents (M age = 14.3) living in low-income urban areas. Community-based violent victimization and witnessing violence and in-person and cyber forms of peer victimization increased the probability of handgun carriage. Community collective efficacy, including caregiver-reported social connectedness and informal social control, and community developmental strengths/supports, including youth-reported community recognition for prosocial involvement and community developmental assets, moderated relations between both violent victimization and witnessing violence and handgun carriage. School developmental strengths/supports, including school developmental assets and family prosocial involvement in school, moderated relations between in-person and cyber victimization and handgun carriage. Family developmental strengths/supports, including family developmental assets and family recognition and opportunities for prosocial involvement, were associated with lower odds of handgun carriage. Study findings revealed distinct protective factors related to community violence exposure or peer victimization that can inform youth violence prevention efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gun violence disproportionately impacts Black young adults living in economically marginalized urban communities and results in increased risk for injury and death. This study identifies protective factors across the ecological model for Black young adults experiencing peer-based physical and relational aggression and victimization that can mitigate the likelihood of gun carriage. The sample included 141 Black young adults living in economically marginalized communities who had experienced violence. Regression and moderation analyses indicated (1) peer-based physical and relational aggression and victimization negatively associated with gun carriage, and (2) personal assets, positive outlook, student status, and neighborhood attachment interacted with peer-based violent experiences and had protective associations with gun carriage. Findings from this study indicate a need for tailored prevention, policy efforts in order to support Black young adults and decrease gun carriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Violence is a major public health concern that particularly impacts Black young adults living in under-resourced, urban communities. There is limited research on promotive and protective factors that mitigate the impact of violence exposure on aggressive behavior. This study aims to address this gap by exploring positive factors across the ecological model in a sample of 141 predominantly Black young adults ages 18 to 22 years living in low-income communities. Regression analyses indicated that generally factors at the individual/peer and family level were more likely to be promotive. Additionally, nine significant interactions found in the moderation analyses highlighted a complex relation between ecological protective factors and aggressive behaviors for these young adults. Implications for future empirical work are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]