Alcohol and drug use among gang members: A closer look at the experiences of boys and girls

Objective: To determine patterns of alcohol, drug use, and related exposures among high-school students (both boys and girls) who are current or former gang members.

Methods: Analyses were based on data from the Youth Violence Survey. This survey, conducted in 2004, was administered to over 80% of public school students in grades 7, 9, 11, and 12 (N=4,131) in a high-risk, urban school district. Associations between age of alcohol use initiation, frequency of alcohol use, alcohol-related physical fighting, peer drinking, drug use, drug selling, peer drug selling, seen drug deals in the neighborhood and gang membership were determined through logistic regression analyses.

Results: In this study, 8.8% of students (2.9% of girls and 5.9% of boys) reported current or former gang membership. Students who initiated alcohol use prior to age 13 (OR=4.90;95%CI: 3.65-6.58), who drank alcohol 3 or more times per week (OR=9.57;95%CI: 6.09-15.03) and who used drugs 3 or more times per week (OR=6.51;95%CI: 4.59-9.25) were more likely to report gang membership than students who did not report alcohol or drug use. Similar results were observed for boys and girls, many of the associations were .

Conclusions: Our findings show that gang members, both boys and girls, have frequent experiences and exposures to alcohol and drug use and are also more likely to initiate alcohol prior to age 13. Schools can serve as a critical source for intervention and prevention efforts for gang members, especially those in 7th grade, who still attend school.