Violence emerged as an expression of care from this author's dissertation research, "An ethnonursing culture care study of the meanings, expressions and lifeway experiences of selected urban African American adolescent gang members. The purpose of this subsequent qualitative study was to systematically analyze further the universal meanings of violence within the urban African American adolescent gang subculture. Leininger's Culture Care Diversity and Universality theory of nursing along with the ethnonursing methodology was used to further conceptualize the domain of violence in order to discover additional meanings, expressions, beliefs and lifeway experiences related to violence in the subculture of urban African American gang members. 13 key participants along with 28 general participants participated in ethnographic interviews over a ten-month period. The Ethnograph was the qualitative software used to analyze the raw data. Universal themes emerging from data about youth violence and gang members included: protection through violence was necessary in order to provide a safety, health and well-being within the urban environment, respect for others and from others is necessary in order to promote safety and well-being among family, friends and self and is achieved through violent acts, violence is a means of relieving the social pain associated with living in an urban environment, violence is a means of building self-worth through competition, and violence results from anger associated with the oppressive urban environment. Nurses play a crucial role in promoting healthy lifeways for people living in an urban environment. While nurses should understand role of violence from an adolescent gang member perspective, they need to be actively engaged in helping adolescents to find healthier lifeways to build self worth, gain respect from others, protect family, friends and self and to live safely and healthfully in their urban environment, thereby promoting well-being and health.
Session #1212 - Adolscent Issues in the Community
The 29th Annual MNRS Research Conference (April 1-4, 2005)