@article{ref1,
title="Rethinking how we view gang members: an examination into affective, behavioral, and mental health predictors of UK gang-involved youth",
journal="Youth justice",
year="2020",
author="Frisby-Osman, Sarah and Wood, Jane L.",
volume="20",
number="1-2",
pages="93-112",
abstract="Mental health difficulties, conduct problems, and emotional maladjustment predict a range of negative outcomes, and this may include gang involvement. However, few studies have examined how behavioral, mental health, socio-cognitive, and emotional factors all relate to adolescent gang involvement. This study examined 91 adolescents to compare non-gang with gang-involved youth on their conduct problems, emotional distress, guilt-proneness, anxiety and depression, and use of moral disengagement and rumination. Analyses revealed that gang-involved youth had higher levels of anxiety, depression, moral disengagement, and rumination. Gang-involved youth also had higher levels of conduct disorder and exposure to violence, but they did not differ from non-gang youth on levels of emotional distress and guilt-proneness. Discriminant function analysis further showed that conduct problems, moral disengagement, and rumination were the most important predictors of gang involvement. <br><br>DISCUSSION focuses on how intervention and prevention efforts to tackle gang involvement need to consider the mental health and behavioral needs of gang-involved youth. Further research is also needed to build an evidence base that identifies the cause/effect relationship between mental health and gang involvement to inform the best practice when tackling gang membership.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1473-2254",
doi="10.1177/1473225419893779",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1473225419893779"
}