Lonely or Misled? The Effects of Social Integration on Weapon Carrying among American Adolescents by James Moody The Ohio State University

"They set themselves completely apart, they didn't talk to anyone else." - Melisa Snow, Columbine High School, of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold "My whole life, I just felt outcasted, alone." - Luke Woodham, Shooter, Perl High School, Mississippi Introduction

Most media explanations of recent school shootings have focused on psychological or media-influence explanations. What else can sociologist add to our understanding of why adolescents bring weapons to school? - Situate students in a multi-level environment - Treat schools as social systems - Identify the multiple contents of peer culture What can weapon carrying tell sociology about adolescent social life? - Not often studied by delinquency scholars - qualitatively different meanings of weapons used in different contexts.

Introduction 1. Introduction 2. Weapons in American Schools 3. Schools as Social Systems - Social Integration - Peer Influence 4. Multiple Domains of Adolescent Life - Individual Characteristics - Family - Peers - (School & Community) 5. Data and Methods 6. Results 7. Conclusions & Implications

Weapons in American Schools Percent of Students who Report Carrying Weapons to School Total Hispanic White Black Detail: Males

Weapons in American Schools Percent of Students who Report Carrying Weapons to School Total Hispanic White Black Detail: Females

Weapons in American Schools Surveys show high variability in weapon prevalence across settings YRBSS is limited in this regard, with too few points in most settings Wary students are more likely to under-report to government agencies Surveys conducted in local areas suggest wider variance Range as high as 50% in some setting, BUT: Often target high-risk settings Widely varying question, sampling and survey methodologies Difficult to draw uniform conclusions from these data Add Health provides national coverage with consistent survey methodology National Sample CADI design for highest confidentiality

Schools as Social Systems

Why should the structure of the relational system matter? Two insights from J.S. Coleman - The Adolescent Society Normative patterns follow relations - The Production of Social Capital Closed social structures generate social control Social Disorganization Literature - disconnected communities 1) cannot effectively monitor minors 2) provide weaker normative socialization Both resting on basic insights from Durkheim’s work on solidarity Social Integration

Schools as Social Systems Coleman’s Adolescent Society One of the earliest works to treat schools as lives social communities, focusing on the relational structure of the school. Social Integration

Schools as Social Systems Coleman’s Adolescent Society: Integration matters. Social Integration

Schools as Social Systems Social Disorganization Work on communities & crime stresses the ability of the community to effectively monitor & socialize youth. Neighborhoods characterized by high mobility, many single- parent families, high rates of renter-occupied housing all lack the kind of social closure needed for effective social control. Theory rests on network connections, data rests on proxy indicators Social Integration

Schools as Social Systems How do we identify structural cohesion? The structural essence of social solidarity lies in the relational redundancy of the network. Coleman’s social closure distinguishes an easily disrupted pattern from one where information flows in multiple directions The problem with mobility and broken families rests on the inability of social resources to flow through the community networks Integrated networks admit to many paths connecting people through many alters Social Integration

Schools as Social Systems Coleman’s Social Capital & The Generation of Human Capital Social Integration

Schools as Social Systems Networks are structurally cohesive if they remain connected even when nodes are removed Removal of any point in this network disconnects the set. Each person can control the flow of information through the group. Social Integration

Schools as Social Systems Networks are structurally cohesive if they remain connected even when nodes are removed If there are multiple ways goods can flow, the group does not depend on a single individual to carry information Social Integration

Schools as Social Systems Networks are structurally cohesive if they remain connected even when nodes are removed Node Connectivity Social Integration

Schools as Social Systems Social Integration

The majority of research on adolescents and peers Differential Association & Social Learning Theory Social Influence models (Friedkin et al) [expand these points] Schools as Social Systems Peer Influence

Schools as Social Systems Peer Influence Direct imitation vs. normative context Self-reports vs. peer reports Selection vs. influence Limitations & Extensions

Schools as Social Systems Peer Influence SLT & Internal Mechanisms SLT focuses on the why of differential association I want to focus on the content, as such, I largely assume a normative information mechanism.

Adolescent Social Contexts Individual Level Motivation Fear Afraid at school Witness violence Powerlessness Future orientation Self-Confidence Self Control Alienation Not Liked by others Lonely Attachment to School

Adolescent Social Contexts Individual Level Opportunity Autonomy Time hanging out with friends

Adolescent Social Contexts Individual Level Normative Acceptability Social Control Delinquency School Orientation Religiosity Culture & Background Media Exposure Gender Race

Adolescent Social Contexts Family Context Opportunity Family Monitoring Family Structure Family SES Parent assessment of friends Access Gun in the home

Adolescent Social Contexts Family Context Normative Acceptability Cultural Background Gun in Home Family SES Attachment Close to Parents Parents Care

Social Integration Outsider Position Out-of-school nominations Adolescent Social Contexts Peer Context Motivation

Adolescent Social Contexts Peer Context Normative Acceptability Differential Association Peer Delinquency School orientation of peers

Adolescent Social Contexts School & Community Motive, Opportunity & Normative Climate Schools & Communities can affect each weapon carrying dimension. For example, Violent schools may generate more fear Racial tension might promote weapon carrying Large schools may be more alienating and less capable of monitoring students Geographically dispersed schools may have weaker social integration etc. Specifying & testing for such factors is beyond the scope of the present work. However, school effects must be controlled if we are to have any faith in the within school models. I do this using school-level fixed effects for each model.

The National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health* * a program project designed by J. Richard Udry and Peter S. Bearman, and funded by a grant HD31921 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to the Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with cooperative funding participation by the following agencies: The National Cancer Institute; The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism; the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders; the National Institute on Drug Abuse; the National Institute of General Medical Sciences; the National Institute of Mental Health; the Office of AIDS Research, NIH; the Office of Director, NIH; The National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HHS; Office of Minority Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HHS, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, HHS; and the National Science Foundation. Data & Methods: Sample summary

The National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health Alternate Schools In-school Questionnaire n = 90, Wave 1 In - Home Questionnaire N = 20, Wave 2 In - Home Questionnaire N = 14, School Administrator Questionnaire N = 164 Data & Methods: Sample summary

The National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health I use network data from the In-school survey (1994/5) and behavior measures from the in-home survey (1995). 113 schools have usable global network data & weights, reducing the sample universe to 13,466 Data & Methods: Sample summary I estimate survey corrected logistic regression models with fixed effect parameters for each school.

Who Carries Weapons to Schools? Prevalence 16% of males and 5% of females report carrying a weapon to school This proportion varies somewhat across schools:

Who Carries Weapons to Schools? Prevalence Percent Outsiders (8%) Bridges (25%) Members (67%) Males Females

Who Carries Weapons to Schools? Prevalence School proportions, by Gender

Who Carries Weapons to Schools? Prevalence %Female Carry by %Male Carry

SafeSeen Violence Self Confidence Not Liked LonelinessSchool Attachment Self Control Change in p(Y=1|X) Who Carries Weapons to Schools? Model Results: Individual Motivational Factors Change in an average adolescent’s probability of weapon carrying for a one standard deviation increase in X * College Expectation * Based on model 6 of table 5

Who Carries Weapons to Schools? Model Results: Individual Opportunity & Acceptability Factors Change in an average adolescent’s probability of weapon carrying for a one standard deviation increase in X * * Based on model 6 of table Own Decisions Hang w. Friends Smoker Drinker GPA Religiosity Media Change in p(Y=1|X)

Probability of Carrying a Weapon by Race and Gender* WhiteBlackHispanicAsianNative AmericanOther Race/Ethnicity Probability of carrying a weapon Males Females Who Carries Weapons to Schools? Model Results: Individual Acceptability Factors * Based on model 6 of table 5

Who Carries Weapons to Schools? Model Results: Family Opportunity & Acceptability factors Change in an average adolescent’s probability of weapon carrying for a one standard deviation increase in X * * Based on model 6 of table Step family Single Mother Single Father Other Family Gun in home Close to Parents Care Parents Friend Change in p(Y=1|X)

Network Effects on Weapon Carrying Peer Context Peer Group Deviance School Oriented Peer Group Social Outsiders Who Carries Weapons to Schools? Model Results: Peer Effects