America's rising gun violence problem is negatively impacting children's mental health, a new study finds.
Researchers from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia looked at the link between shootings and mental health-related emergency room (ER) visits in the city.
They found that children who had multiple shootings occur in their area were most likely to go to an ER.
What's more, kids who lived within an eighth of a mile of a shooting were nearly twice as likely to seek out care for mental health issues compared to before the incident occurred.
Researchers investigated 12 Philadelphia zip codes and found over 2,600 shootings that occurred from 2014 to 2018
Local shootings have a negative impact on children's mental health, with those who live near the occurrence of a shooting twice as likely to seek out emergency care for mental care within the following weeks (file image)
Researchers, who published their findings in JAMA Pediatrics, gathered data from 2,629 shootings that occurred in 12 Philadelphia zip codes from 2014 to 2018.
A total of 54,341 children were found to be living within a quarter mile of at least one shooting during that time period.
They found that children who lived within an eighth of a mile of a shooting were 69 percent more likely to go to an ER for mental health services in the 14 days after.
If two shootings occurred within an eighth of a mile the number would rise to 134 percent more likely, and children who had three shootings occur near by were 92 percent more likely.
This means children were up to twice as likely to seek out emergency care for mental care within the following weeks of a shooting.
For youngsters who lived within a quarter mile of shootings, they were 15 percent more likely to go to the ER if one shooting occurred in the past 14 days, 38 percent if two were in the area and 32 percent if three happened, the researchers found.
Rates of ER visits would drop over 30 and 60 day intervals, though the rates of mental health visits after shootings remained higher
