Adolescent gang involvement: The role of individual, family, peer, and school factors in a multilevel perspective

Abstract

Youth gang involvement is a serious public health challenge as adolescents involved in gangs are more likely than others to engage in violence and aggression. To better understand gang involvement, we examined the role of protective (empathy and parental support) and risk (peer deviance and lack of safety at school) factors, as well as their interactions, in predicting adolescent gang affiliation. The study involved a sample of 26,232 students (53.4% females; mean age = 14.62, SD = 1.69) participating in the California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS), a survey investigating a wide range of youth health and risk behaviors administered in all California schools every 2 years. Using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), findings indicated that high levels of empathy and parental support were associated with a lower likelihood of affiliating with a gang. Associating with deviant peers and perceiving the school as unsafe were positively correlated with gang membership. At the school level, lack of safety and type of school (special education, vocational, or alternative school vs. comprehensive schools) were associated with greater probability of gang membership. Empathy mitigated the association between deviant peers and gang membership. Aggr. Behav. 41:386–397, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Childhood Adversity and the Continued Exposure to Trauma and Violence Among Adolescent Gang Members

“…Youth surrounded by violence may feel continually at risk for victimization and fear for their own and others’ safety. Such fears may result in chronic hyperarousal and insecurity (Fowler et al, 2009), which are associated with increased likelihood of gang membership (Lenzi et al, 2014). …”

“…Risk of gang entry is elevated during early adolescence, and youth tend to cycle in and out of gangs throughout their lives (Pyrooz, 2014). Multiple risk factors for joining gangs have been identified: financial hardship (Eitle, Gunkel, & Van Gundy, 2004), coming from single-headed households or households living below the poverty line (Pyrooz & Sweeten, 2015), exposure to violence (Li et al, 2002), and perceptions of school as unsafe (Lenzi et al, 2014). Specific to males, family conflict or dysfunction contributes to increased vulnerability to gang membership (Eitle et al, 2004).…”

“…Additionally, the combination of community violence and trauma in the home or family can lead some youth to seek out gangs, which offer a sense of affiliation and security, as well as the potential for financial gain (Garbarino, 2001). Yet, although gang membership offers the prospect of social connections and physical protection for youth who have experienced trauma or victimization, youth gangs often perpetuate cycles of violence (Lenzi et al, 2014). …”

Protecting youth from gang membership: Individual and school‐level emotional competence

“…The negative emotions experienced by others, evoked as a consequence of one's own antisocial actions, are thus not considered as a cost of the transgression and do not work as an inhibitory factor for future antisocial acts (Brewer & Kerslake, 2015;Chiou, Chen, & Liao, 2014). In line with this, existing studies show that gang members, compared with nongang members, report lower levels of empathy (Lenzi et al, 2015;Olate et al, 2015;Valdez et al, 2000). Conversely, higher levels of individual empathy also act as an important protective factor against gang-related violent behaviors (Olate et al, 2015).…”

Examining family and school factors as predictors of delinquency: A study of juvenile offenders, at‐risk students, and low‐risk students in Malaysia

“…Most adolescents are embedded in the family and school at the same time; therefore, the ways in which family and school factors are linked and how they jointly influence children's behavior are important and interesting research topics in the study of delinquency. The interactional theory (Thornberry & Krohn, 2001) asserts that the effect of the family on delinquency can change if the family is in a reciprocal association with other social structures (i.e., school, peer or neighbor contexts; Davis, Tang, & Ko, 2004;Lenzi et al, 2015;Thornberry, Lizotte, Krohn, Farnworth, & Jang, 1991). Loukas, Roalson, and Herrera (2010) identified the role that school connectedness might play in offsetting the negative impact of the family in early adolescence.…”