TY - JOUR PY - 2019// TI - Gang-related attitudes and affiliations among African American youth: an ecological model JO - Violence and victims A1 - Gooden, Adia S. A1 - McMahon, Susan D. A1 - Li, Yan SP - 717 EP - 730 VL - 34 IS - 4 N2 - An array of individual and ecological factors promotes and detracts from gang involvement. Using a transactional-ecological framework, we test a theoretical model in which ecological and individual factors influence gang-related attitudes and affiliations. African American adolescents (N = 174), in 5th-8th grades, from two schools in a disadvantaged community, participated. Path analysis demonstrated the proposed model produced good fit with the data. Significant pathways suggest poverty is associated with less parental support, exposure to violence is associated with more gang-related attitudes and affiliations, and religiosity is associated with fewer gang-related attitudes and affiliations. These findings illustrate the importance of models including ecological and individual factors related to gang involvement and suggest ways to reduce societal problems associated with gangs.

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Language: en

LA - en SN - 0886-6708 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1891/0886-6708.VV-D-17-00133 ID - ref1 ER -