Mental health difficulties, conduct problems, and emotional maladjustment predict a range of negative outcomes, and this may include gang involvement. However, few studies have examined how behavioral, mental health, socio-cognitive, and emotional factors all relate to adolescent gang involvement. This study examined 91 adolescents to compare non-gang with gang-involved youth on their conduct problems, emotional distress, guilt-proneness, anxiety and depression, and use of moral disengagement and rumination. Analyses revealed that gang-involved youth had higher levels of anxiety, depression, moral disengagement, and rumination. Gang-involved youth also had higher levels of conduct disorder and exposure to violence, but they did not differ from non-gang youth on levels of emotional distress and guilt-proneness. Discriminant function analysis further showed that conduct problems, moral disengagement, and rumination were the most important predictors of gang involvement. Discussion focuses on how intervention and prevention efforts to tackle gang involvement need to consider the mental health and behavioral needs of gang-involved youth. Further research is also needed to build an evidence base that identifies the cause/effect relationship between mental health and gang involvement to inform the best practice when tackling gang membership.

中文翻译：

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重新思考我们如何看待帮派成员：对英国涉黑青年的情感、行为和心理健康预测因素的调查

心理健康困难、行为问题和情绪失调预示着一系列负面结果，这可能包括帮派参与。然而，很少有研究探讨行为、心理健康、社会认知和情绪因素与青少年帮派卷入之间的关系。这项研究调查了 91 名青少年，将非帮派青少年与参与帮派的青少年的行为问题、情绪困扰、内疚倾向、焦虑和抑郁以及道德脱离和沉思的使用进行了比较。分析显示，参与帮派的青年有更高程度的焦虑、抑郁、道德脱节和沉思。参与帮派的青少年也有较高的品行障碍和暴露于暴力的程度，但他们在情绪困扰和内疚倾向方面与非帮派青少年没有区别。判别函数分析进一步表明，行为问题、道德脱离和沉思是帮派卷入的最重要预测因素。讨论的重点是解决帮派卷入问题的干预和预防工作如何需要考虑卷入帮派的青年的心理健康和行为需求。还需要进一步研究以建立一个证据基础，以确定心理健康与帮派卷入之间的因果关系，以便在处理帮派成员身份时为最佳实践提供信息。