The sound of music...
High school survey shows music influences kids’ actions

Gallup High School students Jaylaine Garcia,left, and Anastasia Jim both claim an alcohol free and drug free life. Jim spends her time skateboarding and playing the french horn and Garcia spends her time volunteering and doing marshal arts. While talking about a message for other youth, the two girls offered a phrase of advice, "Think twice before you roll the dice, life is not a gamble." [Photo by Daniel Zollinger/Independent]

John Antonio, lead singer of Foreshadow from Gallup, screams into the microphone during a show at Bowannie Hall in Zuni to collect toys for needy children. [Photo by Karen Francis/Independent]

GALLUP — Students at Gallup High School who are into hip-hop music are more prone to abuse alcohol, according to a recent study.

The same study concludes that GHS students who consider themselves part of the mainstream rock and jock subcultures at the school are significantly less likely to drink.

The study, done by the Rescue Social Change Group on behalf of the school district and the McKinley County DWI program, was done to better understand young people who exhibit risk behavior, such as drinking or binge drinking, and to see if belonging to any of the various subcultures at GHS could lead one to predict behavior.

A total of 164 students at GHS — about one-tenth of the student population — took part in the survey with those surveyed between the ages of 14 and 18. Researchers said they were able to get a cross-section of the student population, based on race, age, grade level and gender.

What the group discovered, according to its findings, was that the hip-hop subculture at GHS was “extremely influential” and that students who identify with hip hop music and its language, imagery and clothing “are more likely to be highly concerned with social success and also more likely to drink alcohol.”

Some 60 percent of those who participated in the survey said they identified with hip-hop music or the more hardcore gang-related hip hop cultural attitudes.

According to the researchers, youth subcultures at GHS are built on preferences in music and clothing and use of slang words.

But talking to members of the school’s Students Against Drunk Driving about the survey results last week, it appears that there is a disagreement about the validity of the study’s argument. None of the three were asked to participate in the survey.

“Music doesn’t influence drinking,” said Jaylaine Garcia, who said she agreed with the others that there were other factors within the GHS society that had more influence.

One of the problems with the survey, said Jessica Jimenez, is that students at GHS cannot be pigeon-holed to the point where you can say that this person or that person belongs to one subgroup or another.

Unlike the scenes of high school life one can see in the movies or on television, students at GHS don’t just associate with people who could be said to be in one group or another.

Anastan Jim agreed, saying that students at GHS usually associated with a wide range of friends, some of whom like hip-hop music and others who enjoyed rock music and to say that someone belongs to one group or another is more likely to drink misses the point in that almost every subgroup at GHS has its drinkers and non-drinkers as well as its “wannabees.”

The study itself came up with six distinct subgroups at GHS. Besides the hip-hop and mainstream pop/jock cultures, others that were listed were the extreme gang-related hip hop, skaters, emo and goth/rocker. The biggest group on campus — some 52 percent — are part of the mainstream pop/jock cultures.

Emo, which 27 percent of those surveyed identified with, is loosely derived from the word “emotional,” according to the survey. About 15 percent of he youth identified with goth/rocker images and only 12 percent were influenced by skater types.

The survey is being embraced by the McKinley County DWI Planning Council, which, after reviewing the results of the research, has recommended that the survey be expanded to include all GHS students to ensure a comprehensive analysis of local student culture which would then be used to plan future strategies aimed at Gallup youth to reduce underage drinking.