7 - (IOP 12) Just ‘cause They’re Smiling Don’t Mean They’re Okay: Black Adolescent Perspectives on Gun Violence and School-based Responses to Homicide in New Orleans

Although bereavement due to homicide disproportionately impacts communities of color, context-specific research on the conceptualization of grief and loss by Black adolescents bereaved by homicide is limited. As highlighted by this year’s conference theme, the absence of context-specific research has numerous adverse consequences, which, in this case, includes the possibility that current behavioral interventions for traumatic grief and school-based crisis responses to student death are ineffective or even counterproductive for Black youth. Using ecological models and a child rights framework, this paper presents findings from a phenomenological study conducted in 2023 at Tulane University that aimed to understand the bereavement experiences of Black youth in New Orleans and evaluate existing school-based responses to homicide and gun violence from a youth perspective.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine Black students, eight girls and one boy, at a public charter high school in New Orleans. The study participants represented multiple neighborhoods within the city, and their experiences with gun violence and loss varied, with connections to victims ranging from close family members to classmates. The interviews were coded in multiple iterations using consensus coding. During the first round of coding, interviews were coded deductively using the following a priori codes: coping, stress, support, and gun violence. Following the first round of coding, each category was broken down into secondary inductive categories. For example, all quotations coded under the domain of “support” were then coded using “support wanted,” “support received,” and “lack of support.” Coping was divided into “alone” and “community.” Finally, during the last stage of coding, each inductive code was coded in vivo to identify codes in participants’ own words.

The presentation will highlight the following findings from the thematic analysis: primary impacts of gun violence and homicide-related bereavement on the individual and school community, as well as support wanted from the adolescent perspective. The author will offer eight primary recommendations for mental health professionals and schools in areas with high rates of gun violence: conceptualize gun violence as an ongoing crisis, acknowledge injustice and support collective grief, implement transparent and lenient school policies, address barriers to intervention access, consider who is missing from a crisis response, support existing coping skills and strategies, be attentive to adult mental health, and ask and empower youth. The presentation will highlight the importance of 1) examining how contextual factors influence bereavement experiences and 2) including diverse perspectives when designing, implementing, and evaluating mental health interventions and systems of support. Specific examples will be provided of what this looks like in practice.