Youth Gun Violence as a Public Health Crisis: Understanding Risk, Resilience, and Recovery

Dear Colleagues,

Gun violence remains one of the leading causes of death among U.S. youth, marking a critical inflection point in youth public health. This Special Issue of Youth will examine therefore youth gun violence from a developmental health perspective, with a focus on identifying risk and protective factors that influence both exposure and recovery, and it will also emphasize the ways in which firearm violence disrupts youth well-being across clinical, behavioral, and community domains.

We invite interdisciplinary contributions that explore the following areas:

• Risk factors, such as trauma exposure, mental health conditions, access to firearms, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and community disinvestment.
• Protective factors, including strong caregiver relationships, access to quality mental health care, positive peer networks, school connectedness, and community resilience initiatives.
• Evidence-based interventions that reduce firearm injury and improve health outcomes among youth.

The Special Issue will center on health consequences and developmental recovery pathways, in alignment with Youth’s focus on clinical and translational research, health service innovation, and public health relevance.

Proposed topics may include the following:

• The longitudinal health outcomes of firearm-injured youth;
• Cumulative risk exposure and developmental pathways to firearm involvement;
• The protective effects of family engagement and school belonging in violence-exposed youth;
• Pediatric trauma recovery models in clinical settings;
• The neurocognitive impacts of firearm exposure during youth;
• The effectiveness of hospital-based and community wraparound programs;
• Screening and intervention for PTSD and depression following firearm injury;
• Disparities in firearm injury rates and access to care based on race, gender, and geography;
• Digital and school-based interventions for firearm violence prevention in youth;
• Innovative technologies that support firearm violence prevention and recovery in youth, including digital health tools, virtual reality, and data-informed early warning systems.

Dr. Nicholas D. Thomson
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Youth is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• youth firearm injury
• youth public health
• violence prevention
• violence intervention risk and protective factors
• technology-based violence intervention