Predictors of Having Every Belonged To a Gang Among Hispanic, Black, and White Youth

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine factors associated with gang involvement among Hispanic, Black, and White youth. The analysis focuses on comparisons of Hispanic, Black, and White adolescents on their predictors of having ever belonged to a gang.

The study uses Bronfrenbrenner's ecological theory (1979, 1983, 1990) to create a conceptual model of potential predictors of having ever belonged to a gang among youth included in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997. According to this model, factors associated with gang involvement can be found at the individual levels, as well as in other contexts in which the youth exists and/or interacts with.

The total youth sample included 8984 respondents, 6% (n=112) of the Hispanic respondents reported having ever belonged to a gang after 1997. Among the African-American and White respondents, 6% (n=135) and 3% (n=121) reported having ever belonged to a gang respectively.

Overall, results demonstrated that for White youth, the strongest predictors of having ever belonged to a gang are gender, having siblings in gangs, and poverty. In the case of African American youth included in the NLSY sample, the strongest predictors of gang involvement are gender and negative peers. Among the Hispanic youth sampled, the strongest predictors of having belonged to a gang are gender and having siblings in gangs.

Contrary to what was hypothesized, parental variables (monitoring and close relationships), as well as several other individual and contextual variables were not related to ever belonging to gangs across the different ethnic groups analyzed.