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Neighborhood Risk and Adolescent Weapon Carrying & Gang Involvement: The Protective Role of Parents and Peers

Fri, March 24, 12:30 to 1:15pm, Salt Palace Convention Center, Floor: 2, Meeting Room 251 D

Abstract

A high number of adolescents living in urban areas are impacted by neighborhood violence (50% to 96%) and are more likely to demonstrate externalizing problems as a result (Fowler et al., 2009). However, there is heterogeneity in outcomes, and adolescents demonstrate resilient pathways when faced with these stressors (Romero et al., 2020). We therefore examined the protective role of early adolescent hope, parental acceptance, and prosocial peers, in mitigating the impact of neighborhood risk on late adolescent weapon carrying and gang involvement.

Adolescents (N=216; 75% Black or Mixed race, 49.1% male, 76% receiving federal assistance) were recruited at birth as part of a larger longitudinal study of prenatal substance exposure (PSE) and co-occurring risks on early (EA, M=13.26 years, SD=.83) and late adolescent (LA, M=15.08 years, SD=.83) outcomes. In EA, caregiver reports of neighborhood risk and exposure to community violence were averaged into a neighborhood risk composite, and youth reports of externalizing problems, prosocial peers, parental acceptance, and hope were collected using validated measures. In LA, youth reports of weapon carrying and gang involvement were collected and dichotomized (0=no weapon carrying/gang involvement; 1=weapon carrying/gang involvement). All measures were reliable (α >.77). PSE, early SES adversity, foster care status, child sex, and biological mother age were included as covariates. Two multivariate logistic regressions were examined in Mplus version 8.7 using the MLR estimator. Exogenous variables were standardized, and significant interactions were probed at high and low levels of the moderator.

See Table 2 for the logistic regression odds ratios (OR). Higher EA parent acceptance was associated with lower odds of LA gang involvement [OR=0.46, 95% CI (0.26, 0.86)]. There was an interaction between EA neighborhood violence and prosocial peers for LA weapon carrying. Results demonstrated that greater neighborhood risk was associated with a reduced likelihood of carrying a weapon, for adolescents with high levels of prosocial peers [OR=0.39, 95% CI (0.15, 0.97)]. This finding was contrary to hypotheses given that we expected there to be no impact of neighborhood risk on weapon carrying for adolescents with high levels of prosocial peers. One explanation for this finding is that prosocial peers are only protective in high-risk neighborhoods (i.e., in low-risk neighborhoods, having prosocial peers is not protective because there are other protective factors). Therefore, we probed the relation between EA prosocial peers and LA weapon carrying at low and high levels of neighborhood risk and found that prosocial peers were only protective against weapon carrying for adolescents living in risky neighborhoods [high-risk neighborhood OR=0.29, 95% CI (0.12, 0.68); low-risk neighborhood OR=0.74, 95% CI (0.38, 1.47)].

Results reveal several protective factors for adolescents living in high-risk neighborhoods. First, adolescents who feel accepted by caregivers may be more likely to spend time at home, reducing their risk for gang interactions. In high-risk neighborhoods, adolescents with prosocial peers may be more likely to reject serious forms of violence, such as weapon carrying. These adolescents may be less likely to affiliate with deviant peers, which may lead to less approval of and opportunities to carry weapons.

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