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. 2023 Aug 25;35:102385. doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2023.102385

Sleep duration, sleep quality, and weapon carrying in a sample of adolescents from Texas☆

Meghan L Royle a,⁎, Eric J Connolly a, Sara Nowakowski b, Jeff R Temple c
PMCID: PMC10474321  PMID: 37662869

Abstract

Objectives

Studies are beginning to document an association between sleep duration and a range of adolescent delinquent behaviors, including weapon carrying. However, little is known about whether and to what extent sleep quality – another dimension of sleep for healthy adolescent functioning – is associated with weapon carrying. We address this gap in knowledge by evaluating the role of restless sleep and sleep duration in adolescent weapon carrying.

Methods

We analyze data from a diverse sample of 994 adolescents from Texas, USA collected in 2010. Multivariate logistic regression models estimate the association of sleep duration and restless sleep on weapon carrying after controlling for theoretical covariates and demographic characteristics.

Results

Adolescents sleeping 4 h or less on school nights were more than twice as likely to report carrying a weapon (OR = 2.38, 95% CI = 1.16–4.89, p =.018). Sleeping 5–6 h was associated with higher odds of carrying a weapon, while 6–7 h and 8 or more hours were associated with lower odds; however, all associations were non-significant. Restless sleep was associated with weapon carrying at the bivariate level (Pearson χ2 (3) = 10.56, p =.014), but not at the multivariate (OR = 1.10, 95% CI = 0.91–1.32, p =.299).

Conclusions

Our findings align with previous research demonstrating that sleeping 4 or less hours increases the likelihood of adolescent weapon carrying. Restless sleep appears to play less of a role. Future research should elucidate the longitudinal pathways between sleep duration, sleep quality, and forms of adolescent weapon carrying.

Keywords: Sleep duration, Weapon carrying, Adolescence, Dating It Safe

1. Introduction

Recent estimates suggest that 3.1% of students in the United States have carried a weapon on school property (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021) with roughly one in fifteen boys and one in fifty girls carrying a firearm at least once between the summers of 2021 and 2022 (Simon et al., 2022). Data from the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey indicate that approximately 13.5% of students in this national sample reported carrying a weapon in the past month (Baiden et al., 2021). Understanding factors that contribute to weapon carrying among youth and adolescence is of growing concern, particularly in the United States (Baiden et al., 2021, Gunn and Boxer, 2021, Meldrum et al., 2020, Pontes and Pontes, 2021). Previous research has identified several contributing factors to weapon carrying among adolescents, including early onset alcohol use (Baiden et al., 2021), bullying in school (Pontes & Pontes, 2021), and limited gun regulation laws (Gunn III & Boxer, 2021).

Adolescents who report carrying a weapon are more likely to be affiliated with a gang (Lizotte et al., 2000, Wallace, 2018), engage in violent and nonviolent delinquency (Beardslee et al., 2018, Emmert et al., 2018), and be the victim of a violent crime (Ruback et al., 2011). Many youths who carry weapons during adolescence have a history of childhood maltreatment (Lewis et al., 2007), come from unsafe communities plagued by violence (Rowan et al., 2019), and partake in other risky behaviors (Baiden et al., 2021, Beardslee et al., 2018). Accumulating evidence indicates that poor sleep is associated with these risk factors as well, whereby adolescents faced with unsafe environments are not sleeping the recommended 8 h a night, and when they do, it is poor quality (i.e., experiencing discomfort while sleeping, waking frequently, and experiencing trouble sleeping; Brindle et al., 2019, Buysse et al., 1989).

Alarmingly, approximately 70% of adolescents in the United States experience poor sleep (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019, Miguez et al., 2020). Poor quality and shorter sleep duration, especially among children and adolescents, has been reported to be related to unhealthy neurocognitive development (Yang et al., 2022), which can result in mood and behavioral problems (Ireland and Culpin, 2006, Mitchell et al., 2020). In a sample of American adolescents transitioning from middle to high school, Mitchell and colleagues (2020) found that students who reported less and poorer sleep had higher reported levels of hostility. Further, research has shown that adolescents who report poorer sleep quality and fewer hours of sleep are at a higher risk of engaging in a range of externalizing behaviors (Clinkinbeard et al., 2011, Connolly et al., 2021, Drinkwater et al., 2020, Mears et al., 2020, Meldrum et al., 2015). Meldrum and colleagues (Meldrum et al., 2020) found that adolescents who reported four or fewer hours of sleep were at a higher risk of carrying a handgun on (Adjusted Odds Ratio [AOR] = 1.85, p =.011) and off (AOR = 1.40, p ≤ 0.000) school property. It is possible that lower levels of sleep duration may be associated with delinquent behaviors, including potential lethal forms of delinquency (Meldrum et al., 2020), through resulting cognitive impairments (Clinkinbeard et al., 2011).

Despite evidence that sleep duration may be linked to delinquent behavior among adolescents (e.g., weapon carrying), less is known about sleep quality. This lack of attention is surprising given that researchers have found that sleep quality, though subjective, may be more important than sleep duration in understanding differences in delinquency (Connolly et al., 2021) and psychological and overall health (Falbe et al., 2015, Kohyama, 2021). It is possible then that the relationship between sleep duration and weapon carrying may be attenuated by self-reported sleep quality. To address this gap in knowledge, we assessed a large ethnically diverse sample of adolescents to determine the link between self-reported sleep duration, sleep quality, and weapon carrying. We also unpack the associations between ordinal-level measures of sleep duration and sleep quality with weapon carrying to evaluate whether the relationships between hours of sleep, levels of perceived sleep quality, and weapon carrying are non-linear, and if so, in what way.

2. Methods

2.1. Sample

We analyzed data from the initial wave of the Dating it Safe dataset, which is an ongoing longitudinal study of adolescents recruited from seven geographically and demographically diverse high schools in southeast Texas, United States. A total of 1042 adolescents in the 9th or 10th grade at seven public high schools in Texas completed surveys in the spring of 2010 and followed annually thereafter. At baseline, we recruited participants in state mandated classes (response rate: 62 %) and received parental consent and student assent prior to administering surveys. Participants who did not answer key questions regarding weapon carrying (n = 4), sleep duration (n = 3), sleep quality (n = 8) and covariates (i.e., hostility (n = 5); anxiety (n = 21); attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; n = 1); lifetime alcohol use (n = 4); and peer alcohol use (n = 2)) were excluded from the analyses. The resulting analytic sample (N = 994; 56% female) was ethnically diverse (31% Hispanic, 29% White, 27% African American, 3% Asian/Pacific Islander, and 7% Mixed/Other) with a mean age of 15 years old. Preliminary analyses revealed that missing data patterns on key questions did not vary based on age, gender, or race/ethnicity. The study received approval from the last author’s institutional review board and participants were protected by a privacy certificate issued by the National Institutes of Health.

2.2. Measures

Weapon Carrying. We assessed weapon carrying by asking participants whether they have carried a weapon, gun, knife, or club in the past year (0 = no, 1 = yes).

Sleep Duration. We asked participants how many hours of sleep they usually get on school nights with response options as: 1 = 4 h or less, 2 = 5–6 h, 3 = 6–7 h, and 4 = 8 or more hours.

Sleep Quality. Using an item from the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Short Depression Scale (Andreson et al., 1994), we asked participants how often their sleep has been restless, with response options anchored by 1 = rarely or never and 4 = most or all of the time.

Hostility. Using items from the Symptom Checklist-90 (Derogatis et al., 1976) we asked participants how often they: 1) “feel easily annoyed or irritated”, 2) “have temper outbursts they can’t control”, 3) “have urges to beat, injure, or harm someone”, 4) “have urges to break or smash things”, 5) “get into frequent arguments”, and 6) “shout or throw things.” Response categories for all questions ranged from 1 = never to 4 = most of the time. Items demonstrated good internal reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.81) and loaded highly on a common factor (Eigenvalue = 3.15, χ2 [15] = 1871.89, p <.001). Responses were summed together to create an index of hostility with higher scores reflecting higher levels of hostility. Hostility was included as a control variable for its observed relationship to violence (Jones et al., 2022).

Anxiety. We used the Generalized Anxiety Disorder subscale of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (Birmaher et al., 1999) to measure anxiety. Participants were asked to report how often (0 = almost never to 2 = often) they experienced the following: 1) ‘I worry about other people liking me”, 2) “I am nervous”, 3) “I worry about being as good as other kids”, 4) “I worry about things working out for me”, 5) “I am a worrier”, 6) “People tell me I worry too much”, 7) “I worry about what is going to happen in the future”, 8) “I worry about how well I do things”, and 9) “I worry about things that have already happened.” Items demonstrated good reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.83) and loaded strongly on a common factor (Eigenvalue = 3.82, χ2 [36] = 2483.33, p <.001). Responses to all items were summed together to create a variety index of anxiety symptomatology. Anxiety was included as a control in this study for its potential association with violence or weapon carrying (Corrigan & Watson, 2005), though information regarding this association is mixed (Johnson et al., 2019).

ADHD. We asked participants (0 = no, 1 = yes) if a doctor or health professional had ever told them if they have ADHD. This covariate was included based on suggestions from previous studies that indicate children with ADHD may be more likely to engage in certain antisocial behaviors such as weapon carrying (Barkley et al., 2004).

Alcohol Use. We measured alcohol by asking participants if they have ever (0 = no, 1 = yes) drank an alcoholic beverage (more than just a few sips). Early alcohol use has been identified as a risk factor for weapon carrying among adolescents (Baiden et al., 2021) and antisocial behavior (Bonomo et al., 2001, Maldonado-Molina et al., 2011), and was therefore included as a control variable in this paper.

Peer Alcohol Use. We asked participants to report how many of their friends used alcohol in the past year with response categories ranging from 0 = none to 4 = all. Peer alcohol use and delinquency has predicted adolescent use (Trucco et al., 2011) and was therefore included as a control variable.

Demographic Characteristics. Demographic characteristics such as age, gender, and race/ethnicity were included in the analysis. Age was measured as a categorical variable with 1 = 13 years old, 2 = 14 years old, 3 = 15 years old, 4 = 16 years old, 5 = 17 years old, and 6 = 18 or older. Gender was measured with a binary variable (0 = female, 1 = male). Race/ethnicity was measured by a categorical variable with the following categories: 1 = Hispanic, 2 = White/Non-Hispanic, 3 = African American, 4 = Asian/Pacific Islander, and 5 = Mixed/Other.

2.3. Plan of analysis

Since one of the aims of the current study was to assess the association between different levels of sleep duration and weapon carrying, we first used the ordinal measure of sleep duration as a predictor of weapon carrying and then created four distinct dummy variables for each response option and sequentially include them in separate multivariate models to assess the independent effect of each one on the odds of weapon carrying. We then examined bivariate relations between sleep duration, sleep quality, and weapon carrying. We examined weapon carrying across categories of sleep duration and sleep quality and calculated Pearson χ2 estimates to assess significant differences in weapon carrying across categories. We then estimated a series of logistic regression models to examine the independent effect of sleep duration and sleep quality on the odds of weapon carrying, over and above theoretically relevant controls and demographic covariates. In the first model, we included ordinal measures of sleep duration and sleep quality to evaluate the association between dimensions of sleep and weapon carrying. Based on these results, and to examine the relationship with weapon carrying across categorical levels of sleep, we estimated subsequent models with dichotomous variables measuring different categories of sleep duration and sleep quality. We conducted all statistical analyses with StataIC version 15 (StataCorp, College Station, Texas, USA; StataCorp, 2017) with robust standard errors.

3. Results

3.1. Descriptive information

As shown in Table 1, 16.80% (n = 167) of participants reported carrying a weapon in the past year. Further, 78.07% of the sample (n = 776 participants) reported not getting the recommended 8 h of sleep with 3.82% (n = 38 participants) reporting 4 or less hours, 30.86% (n = 305 participants) reporting 5–6 h, and 43.56% (n = 433 participants) reporting 6–7 h. Approximately 19% of the sample (n = 198 participants) reported occasionally when asked how often they experience restless sleep, while 14% (n = 141 participants) reported experiencing restless sleep most or all of the time. Nine percent (n = 91) of the sample positively endorsed the item asking participants if they had ever been diagnosed with ADHD. Sixty four percent (n = 643 participants) reported ever drinking an alcohol beverage. Twenty four percent of the sample (n = 239 participants) reported most when asked how many of their friends drank alcohol, while 3% (n = 30 participants) reported all.

Table 1.

Descriptive Statistics for Wave I (2010) Variables from Dating It Safe Sample of Texas, U.S. Adolescents (N = 994).

Mean/% SD/n Min Max
Weapon Carrying 16.80 167 0 1
Sleep Duration 2.83 0.80 1 4
 4 or less hours 3.82 38 – –
 5-6 h 30.68 305 – –
 6-7 h 43.56 433 – –
 8 h or more 21.93 218 – –
Restless Sleep 2.07 1.079 1 4
 Rarely or never 40.44 402 – –
 Some or a little of the time 25.45 253 – –
 Occasionally 19.92 198 – –
 Most or all of the time 14.19 141 – –
Hostility 11.70 3.75 6 24
Anxiety 8.15 4.22 0 18
ADHD 9.15 91 0 1
Lifetime Alcohol Use 64.69 643 0 1
Peer Alcohol Use 2.81 1.03 1 5
 None 12.78 127 – –
 Very few 23.34 232 – –
 Some 36.82 366 – –
 Most 24.04 239 – –
 All 3.02 30 – –
Age
 13 years old 0.30 3 – –
 14 years old 22.23 221 – –
 15 years old 49.30 490 – –
 16 years old 24.75 246 – –
 17 years old 3.32 33 – –
 18 years old or older 0.10 1 – –
Gender
 Male 44.08 406 – –
 Female 55.92 515 – –
Race/Ethnicity
 Hispanic 31.29 311 – –
 White/Non-Hispanic 29.68 295 – –
 African American 27.57 274 – –
 Asian/Pacific Islander 3.62 36 – –
 Mixed/Other 7.85 78 – –
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As shown in Table 2, the prevalence of carrying a weapon in the past year was highest among participants reporting sleeping 4 or less hours on school nights (36.84%) and lowest among participants sleeping 8 h or more (11.92%); (Pearson χ2 [3] = 16.40, p =.001). Similar to sleep duration, participants who reported experiencing restless sleep most of the time reported the highest prevalence of weapon carrying in the past year (35.53%), while the lowest prevalence was among participants who reported experiencing restless sleep some or a little of the time (13.83%), or rarely or never of the time (14.92%), (Pearson χ2 [3] = 10.56, p =.014).

Table 2.

Bivariate Relations between Wave 1 (2010) Weapon Carrying, Sleep Duration, and Sleep Quality in Dating It Safe Sample of Texas, U.S. Adolescents (N = 994).

Hours of Sleep
4 or less hours (n/%) 5–6 h (n/%) 6–7 h (n/%) 8 h or more (n/%)
Weapon Carrying
No 24 (63.15) 246 (80.65) 365 (84.29) 192 (88.07)
Yes 14 (36.84) 59 (19.34) 68 (15.70) 26 (11.92)
Pearson χ2 (3) = 16.40, p =.001
Restless Sleep
Rarely or never (n/%) Some or a little (n/%) Occasionally (n/%) Most of the time (n/%)
Weapon Carrying
No 342 (85.07) 218 (86.16) 162 (81.81) 105 (74.46)
Yes 60 (14.92) 35 (13.83) 36 (18.18) 36 (25.53)
Pearson χ2 (3) = 10.56, p =.014
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3.2. Logistic regressions

After establishing that weapon carrying varied across categories of sleep duration and sleep quality, we examined these relations while controlling for several potential confounds. Table 3 reports the results from two multivariate logistic regression models predicting weapon carrying. Model 1 includes both ordinal measures of sleep duration and sleep quality. Higher levels of sleep duration was associated with lower odds of carrying a weapon (OR = 0.75, 95% CI = 0.58-0.96, p =.026). Conversely, sleep quality was not associated with carrying a weapon (OR = 1.10, 95% CI = 0.91–1.32, p =.299). We then estimated an additional model with dichotomous indicators of different categories of sleep duration and sleep quality. In Model 2, participants who reported sleeping 4 or less hours were twice as likely to report carrying a weapon in the past year, compared to participants reporting 8 or more hours (OR = 2.87, 95% CI = 1.23–6.69, p =.015). A Wald test confirmed that this difference between categories was statistically significant (χ2 [1] = 5.32, p =.021). No significant associations between categories of sleep quality and weapon carrying were observed (ps > 0.05).

Table 3.

Sleep Predicting Wave 1 (2010) Weapon Carrying in Dating It Safe Sample of Texas, U.S. Adolescents (N = 994).

Variables Model 1
 Model 2
AOR 95% CI p AOR 95% CI p
Sleep Durationa 0.75 0.58-0.96 0.026 – – –
 4 or less hours – – – 2.87 1.23–6.69 0.015
 5-6 h – – – 1.46 0.80–2.63 0.208
 6-7 h – – – 1.20 0.69–2.06 0.507
Restless Sleepb 1.10 0.91–1.32 0.299 – – –
 Some or a little of the time – – – 0.90 0.55–1.47 0.690
 Occasionally – – – 1.21 0.71–2.04 0.475
 Most or all of the time – – – 1.35 0.75–2.42 0.307
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Notes: AOR = adjusted odds ratio; 95% CI = confidence interval. Adjusting variables are: Hostility, Anxiety, ADHD, Lifetime Alcohol Use, Peer Alcohol Use, Age, Gender, and Race/Ethnicity.a Reference category is 8 or more hours; b Reference category is rarely or never.

3.2.1. Supplemental analysis

Because males were over four times as likely to report carrying a weapon in the past year and given previous research documenting that poor sleep is more strongly linked to serious forms of delinquency among males (Peach & Gaultney, 2013), we conducted a series of supplemental analyses to assess whether the effect of levels of sleep duration and sleep quality on weapon carrying varied across self-reported gender. We first created interaction terms between ordinal measures of sleep duration and sleep quality with gender and included them into the model. Both were non-significant (sleep duration × gender: OR = 0.63, 95% CI = 0.38–1.04; sleep quality × gender: OR = 0.73, 95% CI = 0.50–1.06); however, we wanted to probe these effects further by examining whether any unique associations between categories of sleep and weapon carrying existed in males and females. The top row of Fig. 1 presents the results for sleep duration. Males were 38% less likely to report carrying a weapon in the past year for every unit increase in sleep duration (OR = 0.62, 95% CI = 0.45-0.85, p =.004). Males reporting sleeping 4 h or less, 5–6 h, and 6–7 h, were no more or less likely to report carrying a weapon in the past year. However, those who reported sleeping 8 h or more were 53% less likely to report carrying a weapon (OR = 0.47, 95% CI = 0.24-0.91, p =.025). Among female participants, sleep duration was unrelated to weapon carrying (ps > 0.05). The bottom column of Fig. 1 presents the results for sleep quality. No significant relations between categories of sleep quality and weapon carrying for males or females were found (ps > 0.05).

Fig. 1.

Fig. 1

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Results from Supplemental Analyses Examining Sleep Duration, Sleep Quality, and Weapon Carrying Across Gender in Wave I (2010) Dating It Safe Sample of Texas, U.S. Adolescents.

4. Discussion

While a growing body of research has begun to focus on understanding the connections between sleep duration and serious forms of adolescent delinquency, including weapon carrying (Meldrum et al., 2020), relatively little attention has been given to evaluating the role of sleep quality on this association. This existing gap in the literature limits our current understanding of the extent to which different forms of sleep are related to weapon carrying in adolescence. We addressed this gap in the literature by evaluating: 1) common and unique bivariate relations between sleep duration and quality with weapon carrying in a diverse sample of adolescent youth; and 2) the potential non-linear associations between dimensions of sleep and weapon carrying. In addition to replicating prior research on sleep duration and weapon carrying, this was the first study to consider the role of sleep quality on adolescent weapon carrying. Two key findings emerged.

First, adolescents who reported sleeping four or less hours on school nights were more likely to report carrying a weapon in the past year. While males were more likely to carry a weapon than females, analyses including interaction terms between self-reported gender and sleep quality and quantity did not reveal any significant findings. Supplemental analyses showed that males who received eight or more hours of sleep were less likely to report carrying a weapon. Therefore, although accumulating evidence indicates that adolescent females may need more sleep than males, especially during pubertal transitionary periods (Galland et al., 2017, Forest et al., 2022, Rajab et al., 2021), intervention strategies aimed specifically at reducing gun carrying by improving sleep among those with extremely low sleep duration may be more beneficial for males. Given that males are more likely to commit crime and engage in antisocial behaviors than females, this is not necessarily a surprising finding. Further, puberty often occurs later in males (Kauffman, 2010, Semaan and Kauffman, 2010), possibly indicating that sleep changes are more likely to occur during this time in a manner that increases the likelihood of antisocial behavior in males, but not females. These findings, however, should be interpreted with caution until replicated with more representative samples and longitudinal designs.

It is possible that extremely short sleep duration may also result from factors related to weapon carrying, such as risk seeking behaviors or spending time outside of the home, especially at night. Several studies have indicated significant relationships between non-shared environmental effects and weapon carrying (Wallace, 2017) or gang affiliation (Barnes et al., 2012). Though little research to date has investigated the role of sleep and gang affiliation, low sleep duration has been associated with risk taking behavior among adolescents (Short & Weber, 2018).

A second important finding was that sleep quality was associated with weapon carrying at the bivariate level such that those who experience very frequent restless sleep are more likely to carry a weapon, but not at the multivariate level. In contrast to our hypothesis and prior research (Connolly et al., 2021, Falbe et al., 2015, Kohyama, 2021), these findings suggest that sleep quality may be less important than duration when it comes to weapon carrying among adolescents. Indeed, reduced sleep quantity has been linked to a decline in cognitive ability, including emotional regulation, behavior problems, and other negative life outcomes associated with reduced executive functioning (Clinkinbeard et al., 2011, Kohyama, 2021). Meldrum and colleagues (2020) report that adolescents with insufficient sleep are more likely to carry weapons on school property, and Hildenbrand et al. (2013) indicate that those with little sleep quality are more likely to engage in school violence more generally. It is also possible that we did not observe a link between weapon carrying and sleep quality because our measure of the latter relied on a single item of restless sleep. Future research should include a more robust indicator of sleep quality such as the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (Shahid et al., 2012) to better assess the relationship between sleep quality and weapon carrying among adolescents.

While the current study contributes to the burgeoning body of research examining sleep and lethal adolescent behaviors, it is not without its limitations. First, the use of a cross-sectional design limits our ability to understand temporal links, as well as limits our findings to only one part of the life course. Understanding the link over time, especially in concert with changes in sleep hygiene developmental periods (Kohyama, 2021), will provide a more robust understanding of the effects of sleep on weapon carrying. Second, this study relies on self-reported measures of sleep quality and quantity. Other methods, such as sleep diaries and actigraphy, would have provided more reliable estimates of sleep (Short et al., 2012). Ideally, researchers will integrate both objective and subjective measures of sleep to provide a more robust indicator of problematic sleep among adolescents. Additionally, future studies should attempt to replicate the reported findings with a continuous measure of hours of sleep to assess if very long sleep duration serves as a potential risk factor for weapon carrying behavior as well.

Third, this study is limited in that it only includes an aggregate measure of weapon carrying. It is possible that sleep constructs may have differential impacts on carrying different types of weapons. It is also important to recognize that direct comparisons between the associations with sleep quality, quantity, and weapon carrying are difficult given the differences in coding those variables. Interpretation of the results should keep these differences in mind. Though not considered in this study, future research may consider conducting a similar study that evaluates potential interactive effects between sleep quality and sleep quantity on weapon carrying among adolescents. Moreover, the study is limited in that the original questionnaire did not include a response category option for those that sleep 7–8 h per night – which could be a large proportion of the sample. Finally, studies using more representative samples and longitudinal designs are needed to better uncover potential gender differences in the relationship between sleep and weapon carrying.

5. Conclusion

In a large, cross-sectional study of ethnically diverse adolescents, we found that extremely low sleep duration was associated with weapon carrying and may serve as an independent risk marker for weapon carrying among adolescents. There are potential differences in the relationship between sleep and weapon carrying by gender that warrant further investigation. Surprisingly, the bivariate link between low sleep quality and weapon carrying dissolved when accounting for sleep duration and other confounders. Violence intervention programs may benefit from emphasizing sleep hygiene – in particular, the suggested number of sleep hours – as a strategy for reducing adolescent weapon carrying. Future longitudinal research using more robust measures of sleep quality and duration should further explore this relationship.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Meghan L. Royle: Conceptualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Eric J. Connolly: Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Sara Nowakowski: Data curation, Writing – review & editing. Jeff R. Temple: Data curation, Funding acquisition, Writing – review & editing.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by Award Number K23HD059916 (PI: Temple) from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and 2012-WG-BX-0005 (PI: Temple) from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of NICHD or NIJ.

This research was also supported by the Larry Hoover Summer Fellowship provided through Sam Houston State University College of Criminal Justice.

Footnotes

☆

This study was not preregistered.

Data availability

The data that has been used is confidential.

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