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Racial and Ethnic Influences on Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders: The Case of Caribbean Blacks

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Drug Use Trajectories Among Minority Youth

Abstract

The scientific literature supports that differences in socioeconomic status and poor living arrangements influence health outcomes. The fact that the nature of health inequalities differ by their sources raises important questions about causal factors related to substance abuse disorders. Prior studies have generally grouped respondents of African American and Caribbean black ethnicities into one global category of “Black” or African American. This aggregation may obscure important differences in substance use patterns. This study examines in- and out-of country Caribbean Blacks, in comparison to African Americans, at the population and individual levels and how processes of migration might influence substance use disorders. The study is based upon national household probability samples of non-institutionalized African Americans and Blacks from Caribbean countries living in the U.S., conducted between February 2001 and June 2003, with a slightly modified version of the World Mental Health version of the World Health Organization’s Composite International Diagnostic Interview. A total of 3570 African Americans and 1623 Caribbean Blacks, aged 18 and over were interviewed in the United States and an additional 2068 adults in Guyana and 1216 in Jamaica. In this study we found that prevalence of substance disorders vary by national context, with higher rates within the U.S. Rates of substance misuse were lower overall for women, but differ across cohorts by other socio-demographic factors. Nativity and length of time in the U.S. were also associated with mental health disorders. The needs and directions for future research are discussed.

Substance Abuse Among Blacks Across the Diaspora: Krim K. Lacey, Dawne M. Mouzon, Ishtar Govia, Niki Matusko, Ivy Forsythe-Brown, Jamie Miller Abelson & James S. Jackson. Substance Use and Misuse, accepted for publication by Taylor & Francis LLC (http://www.tandfonline.com).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Social Research, Program for Research on Black Americans, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Krim K. Lacey, James S. Jackson & Niki Matusko

Authors
  1. Krim K. Lacey
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  2. James S. Jackson
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  3. Niki Matusko
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Correspondence to Krim K. Lacey .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. The New York Academy of Medicine and the American Association of Geographers, Glenn Dale, Maryland, USA

    Yonette F. Thomas

  2. Health Inequities and Global Health Branch, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA

    LeShawndra N. Price

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Lacey, K.K., Jackson, J.S., Matusko, N. (2016). Racial and Ethnic Influences on Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders: The Case of Caribbean Blacks. In: Thomas, Y., Price, L. (eds) Drug Use Trajectories Among Minority Youth. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7491-8_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7491-8_16

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