The association of gang embeddedness and sexual victimization with mental health outcomes

Justice-involved girls face disproportionately high rates of trauma, sexual victimization, and mental health challenges, yet little research has explored how gang involvement compounds these risks. Using data from the Northwestern Juvenile Project (N = 416), a longitudinal study of justice-involved youth that assessed a wide range of health, social, and legal topics through structured interviews, the present study focuses on the associations between gang membership, gang embeddedness, sexual victimization, and mental health outcomes—specifically mood disorders and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)—among justice-involved girls. Analyses pooled across Waves 2–5 and conducted with logistic regression models with clustered standard errors reveal that sexual victimization significantly increases the odds of both mood disorders and PTSD, while gang membership alone is not a significant indicator. However, deeper gang embeddedness is associated with higher odds of PTSD, and perceived gang organization is linked to increased odds of mood disorders. These findings highlight the critical role of proximal, gendered harms—particularly sexual victimization and deeper gang involvement—in shaping mental health outcomes beyond broader structural adversities. This study extends gender-focused gang research by quantifying the mental health risks tied to gang structure and depth of involvement, underscoring the need for trauma-informed, gender-responsive interventions for justice-involved girls embedded in gang environments.