The article investigates how exposure to gang-affiliated peers affects social behaviors and attitudes of early adolescents. Much of the literature finds that exposure to gangs contributes to adolescents’ antisocial behaviors. According to other studies, however, gang exposure can also promote prosocial behaviors. The present article re-examines this contradictory evidence, exploring potential complementarity of both reactions to gangs. Using a survey of 1,782 adolescents aged ten to 13 from rural Colombia, I compare adolescents who are and are not in a school class with members of youth gangs. I exploit the fact that schools in rural Colombia are unsegregated. Moreover, the presence of youth gangs across these schools is linked to incidence of historic armed conflict rather than typical forms of social disadvantage. This comparative setting thus allows me to establish an unconfounded relationship between exposure to gang-affiliated classmates and social outcomes. The analysis reveals gender differences in the effect of youth gang exposure. I find that girls react to male gang classmate by increased involvement in prosocial organizations. Boys, by contrast, adjust to male gangs by expressing more antisocial attitudes. There are no gender differences in the effect of gang classmates on alcohol consumption (an indicator of antisocial behavior). The article shows that the well-documented antisocial adjustments to gangs are – population-wide – complemented by prosocial adjustments, with gender being a key moderator. I discuss the implications of these findings for theories of violence and social change after conflict.

这篇文章调查了接触帮派同龄人如何影响早期青少年的社会行为和态度。许多文献发现，接触帮派会导致青少年的反社会行为。然而，根据其他研究，帮派暴露也可以促进亲社会行为。本文重新审视了这一相互矛盾的证据，探讨了这两种对帮派的反应的潜在互补性。通过对来自哥伦比亚农村的 1,782 名 10 至 13 岁青少年的调查，我将在校班级和不在校班级的青少年与青年帮派成员进行了比较。我利用哥伦比亚农村学校不隔离的事实。此外，这些学校中青年团伙的存在与历史性武装冲突的发生有关，而不是与典型的社会不利形式有关。因此，这种比较设置使我能够在接触帮派同学和社会结果之间建立一种明确的关系。分析揭示了青年帮派暴露影响的性别差异。我发现女孩们通过更多地参与亲社会组织来对男性帮派同学做出反应。相比之下，男孩通过表达更多的反社会态度来适应男性帮派。帮派同学对酒精消费的影响（反社会行为的一个指标）没有性别差异。文章表明，有据可查的针对帮派的反社会调整在全人群范围内得到了亲社会调整的补充，其中性别是一个关键的调节因素。我讨论了这些发现对冲突后暴力和社会变革理论的影响。