A new study identified yet another link between mental health and gun violence.
Researchers at Harvard and Mass General Brigham found that children whose parents were injured by firearms experienced higher rates of psychiatric diagnoses and mental health visits in the year following the injury.
The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, analyzed records from a large health insurance database and found that in the year following a parent’s firearm injury, children experienced increases in psychiatric diagnoses and mental health visits. That was especially the case when the parent suffered a severe injury.
“Our study draws attention to the way that firearm injuries reverberate through whole families, harming even those who were not injured directly,” said lead author George Karandinos, a research investigator at the Gun Violence Prevention Center at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Firearm violence is the most common cause of death among children and adolescents. Each year, 20,000 children and adolescents across the United States lose a parent to gun violence, according to the study. An estimated two to three times more have a parent injured in a shooting.
This study offers journalists yet another way to examine the health impacts of firearm violence and trauma. Reporters can explore how this issue affects their communities by talking with families who have experienced firearm violence and its mental health consequences.
“As a physician and anthropologist who has worked in areas with concentrated gun violence, I have seen directly how individuals and communities are affected at many levels,” Karandinos said in a statement. “By zooming out and using population data, our study draws attention to the way that firearm injuries reverberate through whole families, harming even those who were not injured directly.”
‘Sharp and persistent increase’
Researchers matched records for children who had a parent who was shot with records of up to five control children of the same gender, geographic region and insurance coverage.
In total, the study found that 3,790 children — who were 10 years old on average— were exposed to parental firearm injury.
“The researchers found a sharp and persistent increase in rates of psychiatric diagnoses and mental health visits following parental firearm injury in the exposed group alone,” according to a news release about the study.
Exposed youth experienced a 42% increase in psychiatric diagnoses and a 60% increase in mental health visits compared with the control group.
Researchers determined that the mental health impacts were acute for girls and for children whose parent suffered injuries that put them in the intensive care unit.
Trauma and PTSD were responsible for most of the increase in diagnoses. Mood disorders like depression also spiked.
In their study, the researchers acknowledge that their work may underestimate firearm violence’s full impacts on mental health because it only accounts for formal diagnoses and medical visits. But their findings demonstrate the need for early and targeted interventions.
“The mental health need that we have documented in this work is something that can be addressed by leveraging existing programs, while also improving interdisciplinary care coordination after firearm injury,” Karandinos said. “These interventions are intuitive, but funding and supporting them is essential to truly caring for the entire family.”
Resources
- The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) provides resources related to mental health and explains different diagnoses. The organization also publishes research related to mental health, including on gun violence.
- Moms Demand Action is a nonprofit founded by Shannon Watts after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. The organization advocates for stronger firearm safety measures and pushes for stronger state and federal gun laws. The group is part of Everytown for Gun Safety and has a chapter in every state and Washington, D.C. This group often highlights the impacts firearm violence has on children and teens.
Related coverage
- Children in U.S. face rising risk of losing a parent to firearm violence or overdose
- Gun violence increases physical, mental health disorders among children, survivors and families, study says
- Guns are the leading cause of death for American children. What to know
- Why children’s exposure to intimate partner violence needs more coverage
