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A role for social media? A community‐based response to guns, gangs, and violence online
Author(s) -
Sichel Corianna E.,
Javdani Shabnam,
Shaw Stephanie,
Liggett Roberta
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.585
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1520-6629
pISSN - 0090-4392
DOI - 10.1002/jcop.22369
Subject(s) - empathy , social media , perspective (graphical) , context (archaeology) , psychology , complementarity (molecular biology) , intervention (counseling) , social psychology , poison control , suicide prevention , criminology , public relations , medicine , medical emergency , political science , computer science , psychiatry , paleontology , genetics , artificial intelligence , law , biology
Social media represents a relatively novel environment for prevention efforts targeting youth gun and gang violence, and associated trauma. The aim of this study is, therefore, to present findings from a novel intervention designed to complement existing, community‐based violence prevention efforts. In doing so, we focus on the role of adult empathy in the relationships between youth and the adult credible messengers (CMs) who deliver the program. Guided by the purpose of complementarity, our mixed methods data analyses combine insights gained from CM's quantitative reports of 145 instances of risky online behavior with qualitative analyses of three focus groups addressing their experiences. Results underscore the complexities of social media as a context with the potential to simultaneously contribute to, and serve to prevent, trauma. Results also indicate that empathic concern and perspective taking were important in informing the type of intervention tactics employed by CMs. Relatedly, CM's perspective taking mattered not only in their responses to risky and/or trauma‐related content, but also in their identification of some relevant social media posts.

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