...law enforcement agencies estimated that there were more than 24,500 gangs with 772,500 members active 2000 (Egley & Arjunan, 2002). The most striking and concerning feature of youth gangs, however, is not simply their prevalence but rather the high rates of delinquent activity and illicit substance use among gang members. Not only do gang-involved youth engage in higher rates of most forms of externalizing behavior problems, but they account for a disproportionate amount of juvenile crime and substance use (Battin-Pearson, Thornberry, Hawkins, & Krohn, 1998; Bjerregaard & Smith, 1993; Esbensen & Huizinga, 1993; Esbensen, Huizinga, & Weiher, 1993; Thornberry, Krohn, Lizotte, & Chard-Wierschem, 1993). Thus far, research has not identified factors that may offset the relationship between gang involvement and problem behavior. The purpose of this study is to examine whether parenting can decrease delinquency and substance use among gang-involved youth. In particular, the goal is to examine the relationship between the level of gang involvement/gang affiliation and adolescent problem behavior, as the two change during the course of a year. Information obtained may help guide researchers, practitioners, and parents identify strategies to reduce or minimize behavior problems among youth who begin or continue to demonstrate these types of gang involvement behaviors.

GANG INVOLVEMENT AND ADOLESCENT PROBLEM BEHAVIOR

The belief that youth gangs play some role in stimulating antisocial behavior dates back to the early 1900s, when social scientists viewed the gang as the training ground for delinquent activity (e.g., Thrasher, 1927). Ethnographers conducting observational studies of gangs in the 1960s and 1970s often noted that gang members appeared to be heavily involved in criminal activity (e.g., Moore, 1978). Quantitative evidence for this hypothesis, however, did not begin to emerge until the 1980s, when researchers began to examine law enforcement records of the criminal activity of gang members. In one of the earliest studies, Tracy (1981), utilizing records from police departments in Philadelphia, demonstrated that gang members committed more criminal offenses than non-gang members. This study was followed by the work of Cheryl Maxson and Malcolm Klein, who used data from Los Angeles sheriff and police departments to examine arrest patterns among gang members. Their research indicated that gang members were more likely to be arrested for drug sales and violent offenses, including homicides, than were non-gang members. Furthermore, gang members were more likely to have a previous arrest history and were more likely to have been charged with multiple offenses during a single arrest incident (Klein, Maxson, & Cunningham, 1991; Maxson, Gordon, & Klein, 1985; Maxson & Klein, 1990).

There are several biases inherent in relying upon law enforcement reports of gang activity. Police tend to classify groups as gangs only if criminal or violent behavior is a major group activity, potentially confounding the relationship between gangs and delinquency (Moore, 1990; Morash, 1976). Additionally, given the widely held belief in law enforcement that gangs, drugs, and violence are closely related, gang members may be subject to greater scrutiny, and thus at greater risk of arrest, by police (Klein et al., 1991). In an attempt to circumvent such biases, many researchers have shifted to self-report measures of gang membership and criminal activity. In a study of 439 Hispanic and African-American male students at Chicago middle schools, gang members were found to report significantly higher rates of delinquency than non-gang members (Curry & Spergel, 1992). Longitudinal data from the Denver Youth Survey, the Seattle Social Development Project, and the Rochester Youth Development Study have indicated that gang members report significantly higher rates of multiple forms of delinquency (including weapons possession, theft, drug sales, and acts of aggression and violence toward other individuals) and substance use (including alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs) (Battin-Pearson et al., 1998; Bjerregaard & Smith, 1993; Esbensen & Huizinga, 1993; Esbensen et al., 1993; Thornberry et al., 1993). Furthermore, in each of these samples, gang members were found to account for a disproportionate amount of crime. For example, gang members comprised 30% of the sample in the Rochester Youth Development Study but were responsible for 86% of serious offenses, 61% of drug use, and 59% of minor offenses (Thornberry & Burch, 1997).

Longitudinal data also point to gang involvement as an antecedent of delinquency and substance use (Dukes, Martinez, & Stein, 1997). Moreover, while the duration of gang membership is typically one year or less (Esbensen & Huizinga, 1993), the effects of gang membership on adolescent problem behavior is far more enduring. Although the rates of delinquency and drug use decline significantly after adolescents leave gangs, they do not reach the low levels shown prior to gang membership and remain higher than those of youth who never join gangs (Esbensen & Huizinga, 1993; Thornberry et al., 1993). In addition, the relationship between gang involvement and problem behavior remains highly significant even after controlling for exposure to deviant peers (Battin, Hill, Abbott, Catalano, & Hawkins, 1998). In fact, the influence of gang membership on youth violence is higher than the influence of associating with delinquent peers (Battin-Pearson et al., 1998).

THE EFFECT OF PARENTING

Since initial groundbreaking study of Chicago gangs by Thrasher (1927), it has been evident that there is a significant relationship between gang membership and family processes. Data from ethnographic and quantitative studies indicate that, compared to non-gang youth, gang members are significantly more likely to live in families characterized by lower levels of parental monitoring and supervision and parental warmth, higher levels of family conflict, and inconsistent discipline (Belitz & Valdez, 1994; Dukes et al., 1997; Esbensen, Deschenes, & Winfree, 1999; Hill, Howell, Hawkins, & Battin-Pearson, 1999; Lahey, Gordon, Loeber, Stouthamer-Loeber, & Farrington, 1999). In addition, higher levels of gang involvement have been predicted by higher parental psychological control (a coercive, guilt-based form of control) as well as by lower levels of parental behavioral control (as reflected by parents' involvement in decision-making processes about adolescents' daily lives) when controlling for the effect of exposure to gang-involved peers (Walker-Barnes & Mason, 2001).

However, despite the evidence of the impact of parenting behavior upon gang involvement, there is little research examining the effect of parenting upon the relationship between gang involvement and problem behaviors such as delinquency and substance use. A notable exception is the study of gang involvement and risk behavior among African-American female high school students by Harper and Robinson (1999), which found that family functioning was unrelated to substance use or violent and aggressive behavior after controlling for gang membership. However, the effect of the family environment was examined only as a main effect, not as an interaction. There is a growing body of research indicating that parenting during adolescence may moderate the relationship between risk factors and problem behavior (e.g., Mason, Cauce, Gonzales, & Hiraga, 1994; Poole & Regoli, 1979; Sampson & Laub, 1993; Warr, 1993). This research is based in part on social control and social interactional models of adolescent problem behavior (Hirschi, 1969; Patterson, 1982; Patterson, DeBaryshe, & Ramsey, 1989). A critical assumption of each of these models is that while exposure to deviant peers increases the likelihood of problem behavior regardless of parenting, certain aspects of parenting behavior, particularly parental control and support, may act as a buffer against the influence of deviant peers. Given that gangs are a form of deviant peer networks, a logical extension of this model would be to apply it to the relationship between gang involvement and adolescent problem behavior.

PRESENT STUDY

This study will investigate the influence of parenting behavior on the relationship between gang involvement and three forms of adolescent problem behavior--major delinquency, minor delinquency, and substance use. It is expected that while gang involvement will be the largest predictor of each of these three types of behavior, parenting behavior will moderate the strength of this relationship. Four components of parenting behavior are investigated in this study: Behavioral control, psychological control, parental warmth, and mother--adolescent conflict. Specifically, it is expected that higher levels of parental behavioral control and parental warmth will decrease the strength of the relationship between gang involvement and problem behavior; that is, among youth with higher levels of gang involvement, adolescents experiencing greater levels of parental behavioral control and warmth will evidence lower levels of delinquency and drug abuse than do their peers living in homes with lower levels of behavioral control and warmth. It is also expected that higher levels of psychological control and mother-adolescent conflict will increase the strength of the relationship between gang involvement and problem behavior; that is, gang-involved adolescents experiencing higher levels of psychological control and mother-adolescent conflict will demonstrate higher levels of delinquency and substance use than...

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