School of Social Work News

Assistant Professor Rebeccah Sokol wrote in The Conversation about both the increase in gun deaths among children and teens and the research-backed strategies and tools to reverse this trend. “Reducing young people’s access to unsecured and loaded firearms can prevent firearm-involved deaths across all intents including suicide, homicide, and unintentional shootings.” The editorial also ran in the San Francisco Chronicle and the Chicago Sun-Times.

Assistant Professor Rebeccah Sokol spoke with multiple news outlets about a recent study that showed teens who have been exposed to violence have a significantly higher rate of carrying firearms. Sokol said “This study highlights the importance of identifying the unique circumstances that link these two different types of exposure to violence to youth carrying firearms. By doing so, we can better understand why young people feel the need to own a firearm, provide intervention support and strategies, and reduce firearm injuries in youth,” 

The study was a collaboration between the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention, where Sokol is the training and education core co-director, and the Firearm Safety Among Children and Teens Consortium.

Detroit Free Press

Huron Daily Tribune

The Bharat Express News

Pioneer

Techexplorist

Medical Xpress

USA Today

Assistant Professor Rebeccah Sokol was quoted in a New York Times article exploring the rise in gun ownership in American families. Sokol’s research shows that families with teenagers who kept one firearm loaded and unlocked were more likely to buy another firearm during the pandemic than those who kept guns stored. These households are particularly vulnerable to gun injuries, she said. “Teens have some of the highest rates of firearm fatal and nonfatal injuries.”

Assistant Professor Rebeccah Sokol has been named a 2023 Public Engagement Faculty Fellow. The university launched its Public Engagement Faculty Fellowship program in 2020 to help faculty bolster their knowledge and skills, and also reflect on how public engagement aligns with their scholarly identity. The effort includes creating an interdisciplinary, intergenerational learning community, as well as encouraging recognition of and experimentation with all forms of public engagement.

Assistant Professor Rebeccah Sokol is the principal investigator of a three-year project recently funded by the CDC entitled “Evaluating a school-based social and material needs identification system to prevent youth violence involvement.” The project will evaluate the effect of Pathways to Potential (P2P) on youth violence outcomes by using administrative data sources and surveys of key program staff. P2P is a Michigan Department of Health and Human Services program that seeks to improve school communities’ social conditions by identifying and reducing the level and concentration of risk factors for chronic absenteeism. Professor Joe Ryan is a co-investigator of this project.