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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol.7, No.7
Publication Date: July 25, 2020
DOI:10.14738/assrj.77.8653.
Smith, N. P., Harper, J. C., Smith, C. L., & Young, D. (2020). Don’t Shoot! State-Wide Police Shootings, Adolescent Risk-Taking Behaviors,
And The Historic Influence Of Wealth. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 7(7) 640-653.
Don’t Shoot! State-Wide Police Shootings, Adolescent Risk-Taking
Behaviors, And The Historic Influence Of Wealth
Nina P. Smith
North Carolina Central University
Department of Human Sciences
Jim C. Harper, II
North Carolina Central University
Department of History
Ché L. Smith
Davidson College
Deja Young
North Carolina Central University
ABSTRACT
The present study uses Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory as a
framework for understanding the influence of state-wide fatal police
shootings and wealth on a host of adolescent risk-taking behaviors (i.e.
sexual risk taking, tobacco use, drug use, alcohol use, and suicide risk).
Using data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, associations were
tested among black and white adolescents from five states (N=13,314).
State-wide police shootings were positively associated with drug use,
alcohol use, and suicide risk among black adolescents. In contrast, state- wide police shootings, alone, were not associated with any risk-taking
behaviors among white adolescents. However, wealth mattered, such
that increases in wealth were significantly associated with lower sexual
risk-taking, drug use, and suicide risk for white adolescents. Wealth was
only associated with lower alcohol use among black adolescents. Our
results indicate that state-wide fatal police shootings may shape
adolescent health in unfavorable ways – namely among Black youth.
Wealth may serve as a buffer against the negative effects of state-wide
fatal police shootings.
Keywords: state-wide police shootings, risk-taking, wealth, social contexts,
adolescents.
INTRODUCTION
America’s demographic and political climate have undergone notable changes over the past decade.
While white Americans remain the majority, the United States is becoming increasingly diverse.
Recent census projections indicate that by 2060, Hispanics, blacks, Asians, and multiracial groups
will comprise the majority [1]. Coupled with shifts in the demographic landscape, the millennium’s
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URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.77.8653 642
Smith, N. P., Harper, J. C., Smith, C. L., & Young, D. (2020). Don’t Shoot! State-Wide Police Shootings, Adolescent Risk-Taking Behaviors, And The Historic
Influence Of Wealth. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 7(7) 640-653.
human development. Unexpected changes in society have the potential to reshape adolescents’
contexts in dramatic ways. The exosystem represents a broader context in which micro-level
processes, such as adolescent risk-taking behavior, can be situated.
The exosystem serves as a social structure that shapes the distal context in which adolescents are
embedded. Exosystem influences are indirect, unlike the immediate impact of micro- and
mesosystem effects. Factors that characterize the exosystem include the political, economic, and
social climate [9]. State-level police shootings represent a plausible way of measuring exosystem
influences on adolescent risk-taking behaviors. State-level measures of police shootings capture an
element of the social climate of the state as a whole, and may influence adolescents’ behaviors
regardless of the social climate of their respective community. Adolescents who reside in states that
suffer from larger numbers of police shootings, relative to those that do not, may be more stressed
or anxious about their own encounters with law enforcement. Whereas isolated cases of police
shootings may affect individuals and their respective families, state-wide police shootings may be
perceived as shocks (unanticipated changes to the social climate) to groups of adolescents, families,
and the broader community, and will not just affect those adolescents who have witnessed police
shootings firsthand.
Social Contexts and Adolescent Well-Being
Exposure to violence is an unfortunate aspect of youths’ reality. Studies have long documented the
prevalence of youths’ exposure to violence in schools, communities, and homes [5,10]. Recent
estimates suggest that between 50 and percent of urban youths have witnessed or experienced
some form of violence in their communities [11]. This number has more than doubled over the past
twenty years [7]. More importantly, adolescents are two to four times more likely to witness
violence [12]. Estimates of violence exposure appear to vary by sociodemographic characteristics
such as age gender, and race. Specifically, older adolescents, males, and African American youth are
disproportionately exposed to violence, and this exposure usually occurs in neighborhoods
characterized by crime and disadvantage [7, 12, 13]. Exposure to violence, whether direct or
indirect, can adversely affect adolescent behavior. These adverse outcomes include suicide ideation,
aggressive behavior, anxiety, and increased high school dropout rates [14-19]. Furthermore,
youth’s perceptions of personal threat, social disorder, and physical conditions of their surroundings
have been linked to risk-taking behaviors [20].
There are a number of important mechanisms linking state-wide police shootings to adolescent
risk-taking behaviors, including increased stress. When conditions of the broader context
deteriorate or change in an unfavorable way, stress increases among those directly and indirectly
affected [21]. The stress associated with a change in social climate (i.e. police shootings) may lead
to less favorable parenting practices, such as declines in parental warmth and the inability to
monitor adolescent behaviors [22]. A study examining alcohol use among a sample adolescents
revealed that parental monitoring partially accounted for frequency of alcohol use over time [23].
More importantly, parental stress is linked to distress and depressive symptoms among
adolescents, which may result in negative adolescent behavior outcomes such as substance abuse
and sexual risk-taking [24]. Parents may also underestimate the consequences of state-wide police
shootings. Zimmerman and Pogarsky [5] revealed that parental underestimation of youth’s
exposure to violence led to more internalizing and externalizing problems and delinquent
behaviors.