Understanding the Antecedents of School Shootings

On May 24, 2022, nineteen students and two teachers in Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas lost their lives and several students and staff were injured due to a mass school shooting perpetrated by an eighteen-year-old assailant. Applying the social-ecological framework, this chapter explores the antecedents of the Robb Elementary School shootings within the individual, relational/interpersonal, community, and societal contexts. The antecedents of the shootings at Robb Elementary School identified in this chapter are male sex and violent and narcissistic behaviors at the individual level, parent-child conflict, and lower social status in peer groups within the relational context, poor school performance within the community context, and living in poverty and permissive gun laws within the societal context. Implications for practice, policy, and future research are also discussed.