Kids who join youth gangs prone to depression: study

Kids who decide to join gangs are more likely to be depressed and suicidal - and these mental health problems only worsen after joining, a new US study has found.
Gang membership is associated with greater levels of depression, as well as a 67 per cent increase in suicidal thoughts and a 104 per cent increase in suicide attempts, researchers said.
"Youth who join a gang are much more likely to have mental health issues, and then being in the gang actually makes it worse," said Chris Melde, a Michigan State University (MSU) professor of criminal justice.
"It doesn't act as an antidepressant. And some people may be seeking that out - a sense of well-being or purpose," said Melde.

With an estimated 850,000 members in the US, gangs remain a "stubbornly persistent" problem, according to the US Justice Department.
Many youth - particularly poor and minority youth - join gangs to escape hardship for the promise of money, protection, status or a sense of belonging they are not getting at home, school or elsewhere.

However, Melde has studied youth gangs for years and found no discernible benefits. For example, the rate of substance abuse and violent victimisation only increase after kids join gangs.
In the study, Melde and Adam Watkins from Bowling Green State University studied national survey data of more than 11,000 middle- and high-school students.

Youth who joined gangs had significantly higher levels of depression and suicidal thoughts than those who did not join gangs. Further, membership in gangs made these underlying problems much worse.
"If you think of gang membership as a coping mechanism - trying to cope with the hand you've been dealt in life - it does not work," Melde said.
"Kids join gangs for reasons, but when we try to find the benefits - whether it is for protection, a sense of worth, whatever - we are finding it actually makes an already significant problem in their lives even worse," said Melde.

The study was published in the journal Criminal Justice and Behaviour.