Gang Membership Amongst Military-Connected Youth in California

Background: Recent studies have found that military-connected students confront many challenges such as secondary traumatization that may stem from a parent’s deployment, combat stress reactions, and difficulties in community reentry. These challenges are largely unrecognized in public school settings. It is possible that the multiple moves and deployments of family service members are associated with military-connected students’ gang affiliation and involvement with school violence. This study explores: (1) Do military-connected youth report higher prevalence of gang membership? (3) Are the military-connected youth or those who report family member deployment at higher odds of being a self-reported gang member controlling for demographic characteristics, school relocations, and school violence behaviors?

 Methods: The core and military modules of the California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS) were administered to every secondary school in the eight consortium school districts participating in the Building Capacity in Military-Connected Schools project. A total of 13,682 students completed the surveys, which includes a representative sample of 7^th, 9^th, and 11^th graders from 21 secondary schools. Bivariate chi-square analyses were used to test for differences of gang membership by gender, grade level, ethnicity, military-connectedness, multiple school moves, deployments, and school violence variables. Logistic regressions examined the odds of a student being a member of a gang given their military-connectedness, familial deployments, changes in schools, and school violence behaviors controlling for clustering in schools.

 Results: The overall prevalence rate of gang membership for the sample is 8% (N=1,077). Males (10.4%) reported significantly higher rates of gang membership than females (5.4%), and minority students reported higher rates than their White peers. Compared to civilian students, military-connected students with a parent (9.7%) or sibling (9.1%) serving reported a higher prevalence rate of gang membership then students with no military connection (7.6%). Multivariate results indicate that students who reported being in fights (OR=2.16, 95% CI=1.91-2.45) or bringing a weapon to school (OR=5.25, 95% CI=4.12-6.68) had higher odds to be gang affiliated than students reporting no fights or weapon carrying. Changing schools four or more times in the past 5 years was also associated with an increased odds of gang membership (OR=1.53, 95% CI=1.18-1.98). Additionally, compared to students who reported no familial deployments, experiencing one familial deployment increased the odds of gang membership by 44% (CI=1.04-1.98), while two or more family member deployments was associated with a 39% (CI=1.12-1.73) increase. 

 Conclusions and Implications: The main finding of this research—that students who experience deployments and multiple changes in school are at a greater risk for gang membership—has several research and practice implications. First, schools should make a concerted effort in identifying military-connected students on campus, determine whether they have experienced deployments, and/or whether they have changed schools multiple times in the past five years. Knowing this information upfront can allow schools to implement support programs that provide military-connected students the sense of belonging and acceptance they yearn. Activities that improve engagement and meaningful participation in school may decrease the negative effects of deployments or multiple moves.