Youth gangs and their families: Effect of gang membership on family's subjective well-being Article

Kakar, S. (1998). Youth gangs and their families: Effect of gang membership on family's subjective well-being . 21(2), 157-172. 10.1080/0735648X.1998.9721605

cited authors

  • Kakar, S

authors

abstract

  • Using a quasi-experimental design and self report methodology, this paper examines the effects of youth gang membership on families’ subjective well-being. Two groups of families consisting of 57 families with children in gangs or at risk of being in gangs and 57families with children not involved in gangs and not identified as at-risk of joining gangs are compared to (1) analyze differences in the levels of satisfaction and subjective well-being of families with and without children in gangs and (2) investigate the effect of the number of children in gangs on parental well-being. The families are matched on variables of (1) responding parents age (+/− 2 years); (2) the number of children a family had; (3) ages of children (+/− 1 year); (4) child's grade in school (+/− 1 grade); (5) family's socioeconomic status measured by total annual income (+/− $3000); (6) family structure; (7) church attendance; and (8) gender of the child in the program. The findings showed that parents with children in gangs report significantly lower scores on subjective well-being than parents without children in gangs. In addition, having more than one child from the same family involved in gangs lowered parental subjective well-being. © 1998, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

publication date

  • January 1, 1998

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

start page

  • 157

end page

  • 172

volume

  • 21

issue

  • 2