Gun safety discussions with caregivers: timing and demographic associations in a retrospective study

This study examined individuals’ recollection of gun safety conversations during childhood, and with whom these conversations occurred. Data were collected using a retrospective survey of 298 college students aged 18–54 from three campuses of a university in the USA. Respondents reported whether they recalled discussing guns or gun safety with a parent, doctor, or school official in childhood as well as what age they recalled first discussing guns or gun safety with this adult. Those growing up in gun-owning households were more likely to report gun safety conversations with parents and to report having these conversations at earlier ages. More affluent youth were more likely to report gun safety conversations with school officials and to report having gun safety discussions with adults in a variety of roles. Few respondents recalled discussing guns with a doctor or paediatrician. Future investigations are needed to assess the content and form of gun safety conversations between children and caregivers.

Children of the Affluent

Growing up in the culture of affluence can connote various psychosocial risks. Studies have shown that upper-class children can manifest elevated disturbance in several areas—such as substance use, anxiety, and depression—and that two sets of factors seem to be implicated, that is, excessive pressures to achieve and isolation from parents (both literal and emotional). Whereas stereotypically, affluent youth and poor youth are respectively thought of as being at “low risk” and “high risk,” comparative studies have revealed more similarities than differences in their adjustment patterns and socialization processes. In the years ahead, psychologists must correct the long-standing neglect of a group of youngsters treated, thus far, as not needing their attention. Family wealth does not automatically confer either wisdom in parenting or equanimity of spirit; whereas children rendered atypical by virtue of their parents' wealth are undoubtedly privileged in many respects, there is also, clearly, the potential for some nontrivial threats to their psychological well-being.