Gang membership and substance use: guilt as a gendered causal pathway.

Objectives: We examine whether anticipated guilt for substance use is a gendered mechanism underlying the noted enhancement effect of gang membership on illegal drug use. We also demonstrate a method for making stronger causal inferences when assessing mediation in the presence of moderation and time-varying confounding.

Methods: We estimate a series of inverse propensity weighted models to obtain unbiased estimates of mediation in the presence of confounding of the exposure (i.

Multimethod strategy for assessing program fidelity: the national evaluation of the revised G.R.E.A.T. program.

This study reports the results of the process evaluation component of the Process and Outcome Evaluation of the Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.

Active parental consent in school-based research: how much is enough and how do we get it?

Active parental consent policies have been blamed for low participation rates and selection bias (i.e., loss of "high-risk" youths) in school-based studies.

Youth gang membership and serious violent victimization: the importance of lifestyles and routine activities.

Youth gangs have received substantial scholarly and public attention during the past two decades. Although most of the extant research on youth gang members has focused on their offending behaviors, recent studies have examined the victimization of youth gang members relative to their nongang peers. Gang members generally have been found to be at increased risk of victimization, although the reasons for this relationship have not fully been explored.

Putting youth violent victimization into context: sex, race/ethnicity, and community differences among a multisite sample of youths.

The increased risk of violent victimization for adolescents relative to other age groups has recently become a major public health concern. The current study uses data from a multisite study of eighth grade youths attending public schools in 11 cities to determine the extent and nature of youth general and serious violent victimization among both sexes and five racial/ethnic groups in 11 diverse communities. This study explores differences in sex, race/ethnicity, and community independently and explores interactions between sex and community and race/ethnicity and community.

Addressing program fidelity using onsite observations and program provider descriptions of program delivery.

Over the past quarter-century, evaluation researchers have recognized the importance of documenting implementation practices of programs as they are transferred from controlled to real-world settings. As programs become widely disseminated in the general population, there is a tendency for practitioners to alter programs in a manner more conducive to their immediate needs, which may adversely affect program outcomes. The current paper uses findings from an ongoing evaluation of a school-based victimization prevention program to highlight some of the difficulties in maintaining a high degree of fidelity when providing prevention programming in a school-based setting.

The outlook is G.R.E.A.T.: What educators say about school-based prevention and the Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) program.

This article reports on a survey of administrators, counselors, and teachers from middle schools involved in the National Evaluation of the Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.

Differential attrition rates and active parental consent.

Active parental consent in survey research poses ethical and practical concerns. One common argument against the requirement of active consent procedures is its effect on participation rates. There is additional concern that higher risk groups may be underrepresented in the final sample.

Reality check. Evaluating a school-based gang prevention model.

The Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.

Active parental consent in school-based research. An examination of ethical and methodological issues.

To date, most school-based research has used passive parental consent. However, the Family Privacy Protection Act of 1995 aims to change these requirements. The proposed legislation requires written parental consent if minors are to be asked "sensitive" questions as part of any program or activity funded in whole or in part by the federal government.