DOI: 10.3886/icpsr02580.v1
title: National Survey of Weapon-Related Experiences, Behaviors, and Concerns of High School Youth in the United States, 1996
title: Version 1

description: This national-level survey of youth was undertaken to
gather detailed behavioral and attitudinal data concerning weapons and
violence. The research project sought to obtain information from a
broad sample of high-school-aged youth to achieve diversity regarding
history, cultural background, population size and density, urban and
non-urban mix, economic situation, and class, race, and ethnic
distributions. Data for the study were derived from two surveys
conducted during the spring of 1996. The first survey was a lengthy
questionnaire that focused on exposure to weapons (primarily firearms
and knives) and violence, and was completed by 733 10th- and
11th-grade male students. Detail was gathered on all weapon-related
incidents up to 12 months prior to the survey. The second survey,
consisting of a questionnaire completed by 48 administrators of the
53 schools that the students attended, provided information regarding
school characteristics, levels of weapon-related activity in the
schools, and anti-violence strategies employed by the schools. The
student survey covered demographic characteristics of the respondent,
family living situations, educational situations and aspirations,
drug, criminal, and gang activities, crime- and violence-related
characteristics of family and friends, respondent's social and
recreational activities, exposure to violence generally, personal
victimization history, and possession of and activities relating to
firearms and knives. Administrators were asked to provide basic
demographic data about their schools and to rate the seriousness of
violence, drugs, guns, and other weapons in their institutions. They
were asked to provide weapon-related information about the average
male junior in their schools as well as to estimate the number of
incidents involving types of weapons on school grounds during the past
three years. The administrators were also asked to identify, from an
extensive list of violence reduction measures, those that were
practiced at their schools. Variables are also provided about the type
of school, grades taught, enrollment, and size of the community. In
addition to the data collected directly from students and school
administrators, Census information concerning the cities and towns in
which the sampled schools were located was also obtained. Census data
include size of the city or town, racial and ethnic population
distributions, age, gender, and educational attainment distributions,
median household and per capita income distributions, poverty rates,
labor force and unemployment rates, and violent and property crime
rates.
description: It has been observed that generalizable and
detailed information on weapon-related behaviors among American youth
is absent from extant research. Past national-level studies asked only
very general questions about weapon-related violence among
youth. Other studies that utilized more select samples and provided
slightly more detail were hampered by questions of generalizability,
not the least of which pertained to their urban, and often inner-city,
focus. What is singularly absent from the store of information about
youth, weapons, and violence is detailed data from the broader
spectrum of American juveniles -- high-school-aged youth from a range
of social and geographic environments. This research project sought to
obtain information from a broad sample of high-school-aged youth to
achieve diversity regarding history, cultural diversity, population
size and density, urban and non-urban mix, economic situation, and
class, race, and ethnic distributions. This study sought to address
the following important questions regarding weapon-related activity
among youth: (1) If weapons are indeed prevalent among youth, what
kinds of weapons are they? (2) To what use are they put -- protection,
intimidation, crime? (3) In what settings are weapons carried -- on
school grounds or away from school? (4) Does weapon-carrying differ in
quantity and quality across the urban and non-urban spectrum and
across racial and ethnic groups, social classes, and age groups? (5)
In what ways are these behaviors linked to criminal, gang, and drug
activity among youth? (6) Does weapon-related victimization vary
across urban and non-urban settings and across sociodemographic
categories that distinguish youth? (7) In what ways does involvement
in illegal activities by youth increase the likelihood of
weapon-related victimization? (8) What kinds of guns are young people
likely to possess or carry? (9) Where and how do juveniles obtain
their firearms? (10) Is the link between drug trafficking and the
possession and use of guns by students more or less strong than the
link between drug activity and the possession and use of other types
of weapons?
description: Data for this study were derived from two surveys
conducted during the spring of 1996. The first survey was a lengthy
questionnaire that focused on exposure to weapons (primarily firearms
and knives) and violence, and was completed by 733 10th and 11th-grade
male students. Detail was gathered on all related incidents up to 12
months prior to the survey. The second survey, consisting of a
questionnaire completed by 48 administrators of the 53 schools that the
students attended, provided information regarding school
characteristics, levels of weapon-related activity in the schools, and
anti-violence strategies employed by the schools. Researchers
initially sought to procure lists of 10th and 11th-grade students from
which they would choose a sample. In 8 of the 53 schools, project
staff were allowed to obtain the lists and choose a sample of 10
percent. They sent each student in the sample a letter describing the
study and guaranteeing confidentiality, a copy of the survey, a
postage-paid return envelope, and a ticket which, when completed and
returned with the survey, granted the respondent eligibility to win
one of ten cash prizes of $100 to be awarded through a
drawing. Distribution of these student surveys followed Dillman's
(1978, 1983) Total Design Method. Two follow-up letters were sent to
those who did not respond to the original request. The principals from
the remaining 45 participating schools chose to select the 10-percent
sample from their rosters themselves, via a prescribed method: The
researchers chose a number from one to ten. Principals started with
the assigned number and counted down, selecting every tenth
student. The principals then forwarded to their students, by mail, the
packet described above with cover letters they had written. In a few
schools, the administrators worked with the researchers to develop a
numbering system by which they could identify and mail a second packet
to students who had not responded to the first mailing. The majority,
however, did not have the resources to develop a follow-up
effort. Most student respondents completed over 95 percent of the
items in the survey. All administrators who responded completed the
entire administrator's survey. Student and administrator
questionnaires were primarily forced-choice. In addition to the data
collected directly from students and school administrators, Census
information concerning the cities and towns in which the sampled
schools were located was also obtained.
description: The student survey covered demographic
characteristics of the respondent, family living situations,
educational situations and aspirations, drug, criminal, and gang
activities, crime- and violence-related characteristics of family and
friends, respondent's social and recreational activities, exposure to
violence generally, personal victimization history, and possession of
and activities relating to firearms and knives. Administrators were
asked to provide basic demographic data about their schools and to
rate the seriousness of violence, drugs, guns, and other weapons in
their institutions. They were asked to provide weapon-related
information about the average male junior in their schools as well as
to estimate the number of incidents involving types of various weapons
on school grounds during the past three years. The administrators were
also asked to identify, from an extensive list of violence reduction
measures, those that were practiced at their schools. Variables are
also provided about the type of school, grades taught, enrollment, and
size of the community. Census data include size of the city or town,
racial and ethnic population distributions, age, gender, and
educational attainment distributions, median household and per capita
income distributions, poverty rates, labor force and unemployment
rates, and violent and property crime rates.
description: Response Rates: Student surveys distributed by researchers
produced a response rate of 33 percent within a range of 27 to 50
percent (45 completed surveys). The school-distributed method produced
an average response rate of 46 percent, within a range of 15 percent
to 99 percent (689 completed surveys). Of the 53 administrators
participating in the study, 90 percent (48 administrators) completed
the survey.
description: Random sample of high schools, 10-percent sample of
enrolled male high school students.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: National Survey of Weapon-Related Experiences, Behaviors, and Concerns of High School Youth in the United States, 1996
description: Male high school students and high schools in the United
States.
description: The administrator responses, census data, and
school data are attached to each student record in the data
file. Information on how to select the first occurrence of these data
for each school from repeated occurrences is provided in the
codebook.