Understanding Latino Family Attitudes in Relation to Latino Gang Members' Substance Abuse

Abstract

This paper presents a content analysis of ethnographic interviews from long-term Latino gang members whose families have recently immigrated to the United States. Positive relationships within the family, parental support, a consistent and constructive parental discipline style and adult supervision tend to be related negatively to adolescents' deviant behaviors and their association with deviant peers. An expected positive relationship between the parent-child constructs, adolescents' deviant behaviors, and association with deviant peers was not found. Positive family attitudes toward deviance were associated with the number of drug type transactions and greater levels of drug use. This association has been overlooked in previous research. Our study expands the examination of the influence a family's positive attitudes toward deviance has on the apparent progression of drug use in a sample of Latino gang members with histories of drug use. An analysis of structured interview content differentiated family attitudes toward deviance as: encouragement and tolerance, imitation, and defining norms.