Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Racial discrimination and substance use: longitudinal associations and identity moderators

  • Published:
Journal of Behavioral Medicine Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Current research indicates that racial discrimination is pervasive in the lives of African Americans. Although there are a variety of ways in which discrimination may contribute to health, one potentially important pathway is through its impact on substance use. Addressing the paucity of longitudinal research on this topic, the present study examined the influence of teacher discrimination on changes in substance use over time among African American adolescents and considered three dimensions of racial identity as moderators of this association (centrality, private regard, and public regard). Latent variable SEM analyses indicated that, on average, levels of discrimination were associated with increases in substance use across the high school years. However, public regard was found to moderate this association such that discrimination was less strongly associated with increases in substance use for individual who reported lower levels of public regard. The implications of these findings are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. The percentage of Black students in the school was explored as a moderator of the effects of discrimination on substance use but was not found to be significant. Furthermore, controlling for the main effect of the percentage of Black students in the school did not change the effects of discrimination on substance use.

  2. Of the 1,046 individuals who participated in wave 3 of the MADICS study, 613 were African American. Of these, 417 also participated in wave 4.

  3. Wave 3 data collection took place in the summer immediately before 9th grade. The measure of perceived discrimination in wave 3 reflects experiences that occurred in 8th grade.

References

  • Bennett, G. G., Wolin, K. Y., Robinson, E. L., Fowler, S., & Edwards, C. L. (2005). Perceived racial/ethnic harassment and tobacco use among African American young adults. American Journal of Public Health, 95, 238–240.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Borrell, L. N., Jacobs, D. R. J., Williams, D. R., Pletcher, M. J., & Houston, T. K. (2007). Self-reported racial discrimination and substance use in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Adults Study. American Journal of Epidemiology, 166, 1068–1079.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brody, G., Chen, Y., Murry, V. M., Ge, X., Simons, R. L., Gibbons, F. X., et al. (2006). Perceived discrimination and the adjustment of African American youths: A five-year longitudinal analysis with contextual moderation effects. Child Development, 77, 1170–1189.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brondolo, E., Brady ver Halen, N., Pencille, M., Beatty, D., & Contrada, R. J. (2009). Coping with racism: A selective review of the literature and a theoretical and methodological critique. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 32, 64–88.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Buka, S. (2002). Disparities in health status and substance use: Ethnicity and socioeconomic factors. Public Health Reports, 117, S118–S125.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Busemeyer, J. R., & Jones, L. E. (1983). Analysis of multiplicative combination rules when the causal variables are measured with error. Psychological Bulletin, 93, 549–562.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bynum, M. S., Best, C., Barnes, S. L., & Burton, E. T. (2008). Private regard, identity protection and perceived racism among African American males. Journal of African American Studies, 12, 142–155.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chae, D. H., Takeuchi, D. T., Barbeau, E. M., Bennett, G. G., Lindsey, J., & Krieger, N. (2008). Unfair treatment, racial/ethnic discrimination, ethnic identification, and smoking among Asian Americans in the national Latino and Asian American study. American Journal of Public Health, 98, 485–492.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Choi, Y., Harachi, T. W., Gillmore, M. R., & Catalano, R. F. (2006). Are multiracial adolescents at greater risk? Comparisons of rates, patterns, and correlates of substance use and violence between monoracial and multiracial adolescents. The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 76, 86–97.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, R., Anderson, N. B., Clark, V. R., & Williams, D. R. (1999). Racism as a stressor for African Americans: A biopsychosocial model. American Psychologist, 54, 805–816.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cole, D. A., & Maxwell, S. E. (2003). Testing mediational models with longitudinal data: Myths and tips in the use of structural equation modeling. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 112, 558–577.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cook, R. (1977). Detecting of influential observations in linear regression models. Technometrics, 19, 15–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eccles, J. S., & Roeser, R. W. (2011). School as a developmental context during adolescence. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 21, 225–241.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eccles, J. S., Wong, C., & Peck, S. (2006). Ethnicity as a social context for the development of African-American adolescents. Journal of School Psychology, 44, 407–426.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fiske, S. T. (1993). Controlling other people: The impact of power on stereotyping. American Psychologist, 48, 621–628.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Fuller-Rowell, T. E., & Doan, S. N. (2010). The social costs of academic success across ethnic groups. Child Development, 81, 1696–1713.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fuller-Rowell, T. E., Doan, S. N., & Eccles, J. S. (2011). Differential effects of perceived discrimination on the diurnal cortisol rhythm of African Americans and Whites. Psychoneuroendocrinology.

  • Gibbons, F. X., Etcheverry, P. E., Stock, M. L., Gerrard, M., Weng, C. Y., Kiviniemi, M., et al. (2010). Exploring the link between racial discrimination and substance use: What mediates? What buffers? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 785–801.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gibbons, F. X., Gerrard, M., Cleveland, M. J., Wills, T. A., & Brody, G. (2004). Perceived discrimination and substance use in African American parents and their children: A panel study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86, 517–529.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gibbons, F. X., Yeh, H., Gerrard, M., Cleveland, M. J., Cutrona, C., Simons, R. L., et al. (2007). Early experience with racial discrimination and conduct disorder as predictors of subsequent drug use: A critical period hypothesis. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 88, S27–S37.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Goldsmith, P. (2004). Schools’ racial mix, students’ optimism, and the Black-White and Latino-White achievement gaps. Sociology of Education, 77, 121–247.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greene, M. L., Way, N., & Pahl, K. (2006). Trajectories of perceived adult and peer discrimination among Black, Latino, and Asian American adolescents: Patterns and psychological correlates. Developmental Psychology, 42, 218–236.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Greenwald, A. G., McGhee, D. E., & Schwartz, J. L. K. (1998). Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: The implicit association test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1464–1480.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Howard, G. (2006). We can’t teach what we don’t know: White teachers, multiracial schools (2nd ed.). New York: Teachers College Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huber, P. J. (1967). The behavior of maximum likelihood estimates under non-standard conditions. In Proceedings of the fifth berkeley symposium in mathematical statistics and probability (pp. 221–223). Berkeley: University of California Press.

  • Jackson, J. S., & Knight, K. M. (2006). Race and self-regulatory behaviors: The role of the stress response and HPA axis in physical and mental health disparities. In L. L. Carstensen & K. W. Schaie (Eds.), Social structure, aging and self-regulation in the elderly (pp. 189–207). New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, J. S., Knight, K. M., & Rafferty, J. A. (2010). Race and unhealthy behaviors: Chronic stress, the HPA axis, and physical and mental health disparities over the life course. American Journal of Public Health, 100, 933–939.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Johnston, L. D., O’Malley, P. M., Bachman, J. G., & Schulenberg, J. E. (2009). Monitoring the future national survey results on drug use, 1975–2008. Vol I: Secondary school students (NIH Publication No. 09-7402). Bethesda, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse.

  • Kline, R. B. (2005). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (2nd Edn, Chap. 3, pp. 45–62). New York: The Guilford Press.

  • Krieger, N., Smith, K., Naishadham, D., Hartman, C., & Barbeau, E. M. (2005). Experiences of discrimination: Validity and reliability of a self-report measure for population health research on racism and health. Social Science and Medicine, 61, 1576–1596.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Landrine, H., Klonoff, E. A., Corral, I., Fernandez, S., & Roesch, S. (2006). Conceptualizing and measuring ethnic discrimination in health research. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 29, 79–94.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Major, B., Kaiser, C. R., O’Brien, L. T., & McCoy, S. K. (2007). Perceived discrimination as worldview threat or worldview confirmation: Implications for self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 1068–1086.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mays, V. M., Cochran, S. D., & Barnes, N. W. (2007). Race, race-based discrimination, and health outcomes among African Americans. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 201–225.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Muller, C. (2001). The role of caring in the teacher-student relationship for at-risk students. Sociological Inquiry, 71, 241–255.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Muthén, B., du Toit, S. H. C., & Spisic, D. (1997). Robust inference using weighted least squares and quadratic estimating equations in latent variable modeling with categorical and continuous outcomes. Unpublished technical report. Available at http://www.statmodel.com/papers.shtml

  • Muthén, B., & Kaplan, D. (1985). A comparison of some methodologies for the factor analysis of non-normal Likert variables. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 38, 171–189.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Muthen, L. K., & Muthen, B. O. (1998–2010). Mplus user’s guide (5th Edn.). Los Angeles, CA: Muthen & Muthen.

  • Nguyen, K. H., Subramanian, S. V., Sorensen, G., Tsang, K., & Wright, R. J. (2011). Influence of experiences of racial discrimination and ethnic identity on prenatal smoking among urban black and Hispanic women. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

  • Ong, A. D., Fuller-Rowell, T. E., & Burrow, A. L. (2009). Racial discrimination and the stress process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 1259–1271.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Orsi, J. M., Margellos-Anast, H., & Whiteman, S. (2010). Black-White disparities in the United States and Chicago: A 15 year progress analysis. American Journal of Public Health, 100, 349–356.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Paradies, Y. (2006). A systematic review of empirical research on self-reported racism and health. International Journal of Epidemiology, 35, 888–901.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pascoe, E. A., & Richman, L. S. (2009). Perceived discrimination and health: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 135, 531–554.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sellers, R. M., Caldwell, C. H., Schmeelk-Cone, K. H., & Zimmerman, M. A. (2003). Racial identity, racial discrimination, perceived stress, and psychological distress among African American young adults. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 44, 302–317.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sellers, R. M., Copeland-Linder, N., Martin, P. P., & Lewis, R. L. (2006). Racial identity matters: The relationship between racial discrimination and psychological functioning in African American adolescents. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 16, 187–216.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sellers, R. M., Rowley, S. A. J., Chavous, T. M., Shelton, J. N., & Smith, M. (1997). Multidimensional inventory of black identity: Preliminary investigation of reliability and construct validity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 805–815.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sellers, R. M., & Shelton, N. J. (2003). The role of racial identity in perceived racial discrimination. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 1079–1092.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sellers, R., Smith, M., Shelton, J., Rowley, S., & Chavous, T. (1998). Multidimensional model of racial identity: A reconceptualization of African American racial identity. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 2, 18–39.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Stevens, J. P. (1984). Outliers and influential data points in regression analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 95, 334–344.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stock, M. L., Gibbons, F. X., Walsh, L. A., Gerrard, M. (2011). Racial identification, racial discrimination, and substance use vulnerability among African American young adults. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

  • Terrell, F., Miller, A. R., Foster, K., & Watkins, C. E., Jr. (2006). Racial discrimination-induced anger and alcohol use among black adolescents. Adolescence, 41, 485–492.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • White, H. (1980). A heteroskedasticity-consistent covariance matrix estimator and a direct test for heteroskedasticity. Econometrica, 48, 817–830.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, D. R., & Mohammed, S. A. (2009). Discrimination and racial disparities in health: Evidence and needed research. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 32, 20–47.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, D. R., & Neighbors, H. W. (2001). Racism, discrimination and hypertension: Evidence and needed research. Ethnicity and Disease, 11, 800–816.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, D. R., Neighbors, H. W., & Jackson, J. S. (2003). Ethnic–racial discrimination and health: Findings from community studies. American Journal of Public Health, 93, 200–208.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wong, C. A., Eccles, J. S., & Sameroff, A. (2003). The influence of ethnic discrimination and ethnic identification on African American adolescents’ school and socioemotional adjustment. Journal of Personality, 71, 1197–1232.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Support for this research was provided by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development grant 1R01HD048970-01A2, the National Institute on Aging grant RC2 AG036780-01, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars program.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholar, University of Wisconsin, 610 Walnut Street, WARF 707, Madison, WI, 53726-2397, USA

    Thomas E. Fuller-Rowell

  2. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Courtney D. Cogburn, Amanda B. Brodish, Stephen C. Peck, Oksana Malanchuk & Jacquelynne S. Eccles

Authors
  1. Thomas E. Fuller-Rowell
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Courtney D. Cogburn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Amanda B. Brodish
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Stephen C. Peck
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Oksana Malanchuk
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Jacquelynne S. Eccles
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thomas E. Fuller-Rowell.

Appendix: Items for measure of perceived teacher discrimination

Appendix: Items for measure of perceived teacher discrimination

  1. 1.

    At school, how often do you feel that teachers call on you less often than they call on other kids because of your race?

  2. 2.

    At school, how often do you feel that teachers grade you harder than they grade other kids because of your race?

  3. 3.

    At school, how often do you feel that you get disciplined more harshly by teachers than other kids do because of your race?

  4. 4.

    At school, how often do you feel that teachers think you are less smart than you really are because of your race?

  5. 5.

    How often have you felt that teachers/counselors discourage you from taking certain classes because of your race?

  • Response options for items 1–4: never (1); a couple of times a year (2); a couple of times each month (3); once or twice a week (4); every day (5).

  • Response options for item 5: never (1); once or twice (2); three or four times (3); five or six times (4); more than six times (5).

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Fuller-Rowell, T.E., Cogburn, C.D., Brodish, A.B. et al. Racial discrimination and substance use: longitudinal associations and identity moderators. J Behav Med 35, 581–590 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-011-9388-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-011-9388-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation