Next childhood experiences associated with defensive pistols in adulthood

Next childhood experiences associated with defensive pistols in adulthood

Researchers at Rutgers University have found that negative childhood experiences can make people more sensitive to potential threats from others, which in turn increases their risk of engaging in defensive weapon use in adulthood.

Their study, published in theJournal of Psychiatric Researchused cross-sectional data from a subsample of 3,130 gun access adults from a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults.

Respondents were asked about their childhood experiences of abuse and neglect, their social distrust and sensitivity to perceived threats, depressive symptoms, and their self-reported use of a weapon in self-defense.

The authors first examined the relationship between negative experiences in childhood and the use of defensive weapons in adulthood. They then assessed the role of depressive symptoms and threat sensitivity in this relationship.

Studies linking childhood risk factors to problems later in life often neglect the role that situational and cognitive factors may play. We sought to unpack the cognitive factors through which childhood experiences influence behavior in adulthood. “

Sultan Altikriti, a postdoctoral fellow at the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center and lead author of the study

Results showed that adverse childhood experiences increased threat sensitivity and depression in adulthood. However, only threat sensitivity was associated with defensive weapon use. Further analysis provided evidence that threat sensitivity confers some risk for defensive weaponry among individuals with adverse childhood experiences.

“Sensitivity to threats from others and hypervigilance can lead people to see threats where they do not exist,” Altikriti said. “This sense of threat sensitivity can then lead to overreactions in neutral or ambiguous situations, which can lead to unnecessary weapon use.”

Reducing adverse childhood experiences not only reduces immediate harm and psychological impact, but can reduce cumulative harm throughout a person's life, the researchers said. They added that because adverse childhood experiences are established in childhood and adolescence, interventions that disrupt downstream mechanisms may be possible in addressing the impact of these experiences on negative life outcomes.

The study's co-authors include Daniel C. Semenza, director of interpersonal violence research at the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center at the Rutgers School of Public Health. Michael D. Anestis, executive director of the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center at Rutgers; Alexander Testa, assistant professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston; Dylan B. Jackson, associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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