Document Type

Editorial

Publication Date

9-29-2022

Publication Title

New England Journal of Medicine

Volume

387

Issue

13

Pages

1149-1151

Publisher Name

Massachusetts Medical Society

Abstract

Does gun violence affect the mental health of U.S. children? That question has the same answer as most inquiries about child and adolescent development: it depends. Rarely does a simple cause–effect relationship apply to the same degree to all children, and the same exposures may even have opposite effects on different children. Such variability is an essential truth of the “ecological perspective” on child and adolescent development. But from this perspective, consideration of gun violence’s effects on the mental health of young people highlights two issues among the many facing U.S. society: traumatic responses in children directly exposed to gun violence and contamination of the consciousness of young people, particularly those with serious mental health problems.

Comments

From the New England Journal of Medicine, James Garbarino, The War-Zone Mentality — Mental Health Effects of Gun Violence in U.S. Children and Adolescents, Volume No. 387, Page No. 1149-1151. Copyright © 2023 Massachusetts Medical Society. Reprinted with permission. https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMp2209422

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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