• Noni K Gaylord-Harden, Jasmine Alli, Clintin P Davis-Stober, and Howard Henderson.
• Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University, United States of America. Electronic address: ngaylord@tamu.edu.
• Prev Med. 2022 Dec 1; 165 (Pt A): 107305107305.

AbstractFirearm violence remains a public health crisis in marginalized, urban communities, with Black adolescents bearing the burden of firearm homicides and injuries. As such, the prevention of firearm violence among adolescents has moved to a high priority of the U.S. public health agenda. The current paper reviews recent literature to highlight the heterogeneity in firearm behavior among Black adolescents and underscore the need for additional research on decision-making and firearm behavior to better understand how adolescents make decisions to acquire, carry, and use firearms. Through a discussion of the disproportionate levels of trauma exposure and trauma symptoms experienced by Black adolescents, the current paper also proposes a trauma-informed approach to understanding decision-making for risky firearm behavior. We discuss the broader impacts of this approach, including the development of a more comprehensive and contextually relevant understanding of the variability in risky firearm behavior and improvements in risk screening capabilities and preventive intervention strategies.Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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