# Firearm Injury and Mortality Prevention with Project Talent

> **NIH NIH R61** · UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER · 2020 · $1,182,203

## Abstract

Suicide among men in the middle and later years has emerged as a major public health problem. Most
suicides in men involve firearms, and this application seeks to determine whether firearm-related socialization
and exposure during adolescence confer risk for firearm suicide in middle and later life. We hypothesize that
firearm-related socialization and exposure confer risk for firearm suicide later in life above and beyond
traditional suicide risk factors. We also examine whether firearm-related occupations at age 29-30 mediate this
risk. Finally, we examine whether adaptive personality traits and problem-solving cognitive skill in adolescence
function as individual resilience factors that mitigate firearm socialization risk. The application uses Project
Talent, a “cradle-to-grave” cohort representing detailed assessments of teens in all US high schools in 1960 (N
= 377,000, ½ male), follow-up of a subset at age 29 (N = 94,000, ½ men), and recently completed mortality
data collection from the age 29 cohort spanning the periods of 1979-2017 (including a 32% mortality rate and
225 male suicides, 63% of which are from firearms). The application includes plans to expand cause-specific
mortality data collection to the entire baseline cohort, which is expected to provide roughly 4x as many suicides
including over 550 firearm suicides, and to expand the data collection window to the 2018-2019 years, as the
cohort enters their mid-70s.The team consists of an experienced suicidologist (Conner) collaborating with life
course epidemiologist Chapman and leaders of the Project Talent cohort (Lapham, Peters).

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10165961
- **Project number:** 1R61AG072408-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
- **Principal Investigator:** KENNETH R CONNER
- **Activity code:** R61 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $1,182,203
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-09-21 → 2024-02-29

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10165961

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10165961, Firearm Injury and Mortality Prevention with Project Talent (1R61AG072408-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10165961. Licensed CC0.

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