Fatherhood Among Gang-Involved U.S. Latino Youth: Qualitative Inquiry Into Key Stakeholders' Perspectives uri icon

abstract

  • 2018 American Psychological Association. Most crimes committed by adolescents in the United States are linked to gang activity, which is disproportionally present in Latina/o communities. Although most ganginvolved teenage fathers wish that their children would not join gangs, their parenting tends to foster gang involvement in their children. An improved understanding of fatherhood among gang-involved U.S. Latino youth can inform the development of parenting- and fatherhood-focused interventions. To foster such understanding, we conducted interviews and focus groups with purposive samples of young gang-involved Latino fathers, parents of gang-involved Latino youth, and individuals who provide services or supports to gang-involved youth. Guided by Marshall and Rossman's (1995) broad qualitative approach, we analyzed transcripts of these interviews and discussions, extracting 24 themes, which we organized into 7 categories and three higher order content groupings. We discuss the manner in which these findings describe the experience of fatherhood among gang-involved Latino youth, and point to influences on their parenting- and fatherhood-related attitudes and behavior. We discuss, also, the implications of our findings for the development of parenting- and fatherhoodfocused interventions for gang-involved teenage Latino fathers.

published proceedings

  • JOURNAL OF LATINX PSYCHOLOGY

author list (cited authors)

  • Acevedo-Polakovich, I., Kassab, V. A., Boress, K., Barnett, M. L., Grzybowski, M. M., Stout, S., ... Ojeda, L.

citation count

  • 0

complete list of authors

  • Acevedo-Polakovich, Ignacio||Kassab, Veronica A||Boress, Kaley SJ||Barnett, Miya L||Grzybowski, Megan M||Stout, Stacy||Richards, Allyn E||Bell, Katrina M||Crider, Elizabeth A||Beck, Kara L||Alfaro, Mario||Saxena, Suchita R||Bustos, Tatiana E||Ojeda, Lizette

publication date

  • July 2019