Homies with Aspirations and Positive Peer Network Ties: Associations with Reduced Frequent Substance Use among Gang-Affiliated Latino Youth

Abstract

In marginalized urban neighborhoods across the USA, Latino youth are disproportionately represented among the growing number of youth gangs. Substance use among gang-involved youth poses both immediate and long-term health risks and can threaten educational engagement, future socioeconomic stability, and desistance. Conventional assessments of gang-affiliated youth and their peer network overlook the possibility that positive peer ties may exist and can foster health promoting behavior norms. Drawing on a positive deviance framework, in this study, we examine the relationship between positive peer network characteristics tied to post-secondary educational aspirations and frequent alcohol and marijuana use among Latino, gangaffiliated youth from a neighborhood in San Francisco. Using generalized estimating equations regression models across 72 peer network clusters (162 youth), we found that having close friends who plan to go to a 4-year college was associated with a lower odds of frequent marijuana and alcohol use (OR 0.27, p=0.02; OR 0.29, p=0.14, respectively) and that this association persisted when adjusting for risk characteristics (OR 0.19, pG0.01; OR 0.25, p=0.12). Public health can advance gang intervention efforts by identifying protective and risk factors associated with non-criminal health outcomes to inform participatory research approaches and asset-based interventions that contribute to building healthy communities.

Multiple Marginality and the Variation in Delinquency and Substance use Among Adolescent Gang Members

“…Substance use is often approached as an individual-level deficit, yet multiple marginality accounts for the ways in which ones social environment, including home and neighborhood, shape personal behaviors and can make individuals more vulnerable to substance use or drug distribution. Although substance use is a prominent health risk among US adolescents in general (van Dommelen-Gonzalez, Deardorff, Herd, & Minnis, 2015), youths living in challenging and disadvantaged environments may be at greater risk for increased use and greater social consequences (Bjerregaard, 2010; R. A. Gordon et al, 2004).…”

Paths to Positive Development: a Model of Outcomes in the New Zealand Youth Transitions Study

“…Anti-social peers are implicated in intensification of risk across a range of domains, and in poorer outcomes for youth (Williams et al 2008;Gifford-Smith et al 2005;Stone et al 2012), although peers (whether anti or prosocial) also offer protective resources for youth (van Dommelen-Gonzalez et al 2015;Sanders et al 2014). …”

“…Civic Engagement Engagement with the community was measured using an 18-item scale developed at the Resilience Research Center (Ungar et al 2013) to assess the extent to which the participant was involved in community activities and viewed themselves as being a good and cooperative citizen (α=0.65).…”

Pathways to educational aspirations: resilience as a mediator of proximal resources and risks

“…The connection between delinquent behaviour and poor educational outcomes is moderated by levels of social competence (Stepp et al 2011). While peer problems are connected with reduced educational performance youth who report positive, supportive peer relationships are more likely to engage in positive, prosocial behaviours and are also more likely to continue with their education (van Dommelen-Gonzalez et al 2015). As noted above, ethnic minority status has also been connected to variations in educational achievements.…”