# Firearm Involvement in Adolescent Children of Formerly Incarcerated Parents: A Prospective Intergenerational Study of Resilience Within Families

> **NIH ALLCDC R01** · NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $649,230

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
This proposal responds to RFA-CE-20-006, Objective One, Funding Option B. Firearm violence is
an urgent public health problem. Despite declines in homicide and other violent crime, firearms were involved
in the crime-related deaths of more than 140,000 people in the United States from 2008 to 2018. Youth in the
juvenile justice system are disproportionately affected by firearm violence. Many juvenile offenders become
parents when young; their children are likely to be at significant risk for firearm involvement and victimization.
Yet there are remarkably few data on how parents’ involvement with firearms, during their own adolescence
and young adulthood, influences their children’s risk. We designed Next Generation, funded by the National
Institute of Child Health, Human Development the National Institute of Justice, and other agencies to address
this and other key omissions. Leveraging prospective data already collected on our original participants, Next
Generation includes the first prospective study of how high-risk parents’ current and past involvement with
firearms (ownership, perpetration of violence, and victimization) influences that of their adolescent children.
This study, however, samples only one child per family. We propose that the CDC augment our
intergenerational study of firearms to add siblings. We propose to add 532 interviews: 165 with siblings and
367 additional interviews with their parents and secondary caregivers. Total N of the proposed study of
firearms would then be 1,585: 709 children plus 544 parents and 332 secondary caregivers. Funding from the
CDC will allow us to address three aims: Aim 1: to examine patterns of firearm involvement focusing on
patterns of concordance and discordance between siblings. Aim 2: to examine the influence of parents’ (G1)
firearm involvement on their children’s involvement (G2), focusing on differences between siblings in this
relationship. Aim 3: to identify risk and protective factors that explain within- and between-family
differences. The proposed prospective study has several key features: (1) the sample will include enough
parents with a history of involvement with firearms (including victimization and perpetration) to examine the
influence on their children and differences between siblings; (2) the sample is composed predominantly of
socioeconomically disadvantaged African Americans and Hispanics, groups that face the most grievous
consequences of firearm violence; and (3) the design will provide multilevel data to identify the risk and
protective factors that explain why one sibling is able to avoid firearm involvement while the other is not.
Findings will guide the development and adaptation of preventive interventions for the highest risk families.
We will provide data responding to the CDC’s priority of identifying strategies to decrease inappropriate access
to and use of weapons by minors and to prevent lethal violence.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10268947
- **Project number:** 5R01CE003271-02
- **Recipient organization:** NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** LINDA A TEPLIN
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** ALLCDC
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $649,230
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-09-30 → 2023-09-29

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10268947

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10268947, Firearm Involvement in Adolescent Children of Formerly Incarcerated Parents: A Prospective Intergenerational Study of Resilience Within Families (5R01CE003271-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10268947. Licensed CC0.

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