TY - JOUR
T1 - The Influence of Distressed Coping on the Relationship between Perceived Racial Discrimination and Cannabis Use among Black College Students
AU - Lanaway, Danni
AU - Burlew, A. Kathleen
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Ronald K. Boyer African American Scholarship Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation. We acknowledge the assistance of Mekibib Altaye, PhD, Cincinnati Children?s Medical Center.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Approximately one in five Black students report cannabis use, which is associated with academic challenges, mental health, and interpersonal problems. Understanding motivators to use cannabis among Black students at predominantly White institutions (PWIs) warrants more research. Perceived racial discrimination (PRD), believing one is treated unjustly due to race, is related to substance use and variables associated with poor coping, such as depression and anxiety. Given that research is unavailable for Black college students on the factor structure of the Everyday Discrimination Scale (EDS) using chronicity-based coding, the first aim of the study is to examine the factor structure of the chronicity-based version of the EDS. The second aim is to investigate whether distressed coping is an intervening construct between PRD and cannabis use among Black college students. Participants, recruited from a midwestern PWI (N = 119), completed the EDS, the coping subscale of the Comprehensive Marijuana Motivations Measure, and reported past-year cannabis use. Factor analysis examined the measurement model of the EDS, while path analysis assessed the mediation models. A two-factor model assessing subtle and blatant PRD on the EDS fit the data. The path analysis revealed that distressed coping fully mediated the relationship between subtle PRD and cannabis use. Distressed coping did not mediate the relation between blatant PRD and cannabis use. Institutions might focus on reducing PRD and provide support to Black students to lessen its link to distressed coping and cannabis use.
AB - Approximately one in five Black students report cannabis use, which is associated with academic challenges, mental health, and interpersonal problems. Understanding motivators to use cannabis among Black students at predominantly White institutions (PWIs) warrants more research. Perceived racial discrimination (PRD), believing one is treated unjustly due to race, is related to substance use and variables associated with poor coping, such as depression and anxiety. Given that research is unavailable for Black college students on the factor structure of the Everyday Discrimination Scale (EDS) using chronicity-based coding, the first aim of the study is to examine the factor structure of the chronicity-based version of the EDS. The second aim is to investigate whether distressed coping is an intervening construct between PRD and cannabis use among Black college students. Participants, recruited from a midwestern PWI (N = 119), completed the EDS, the coping subscale of the Comprehensive Marijuana Motivations Measure, and reported past-year cannabis use. Factor analysis examined the measurement model of the EDS, while path analysis assessed the mediation models. A two-factor model assessing subtle and blatant PRD on the EDS fit the data. The path analysis revealed that distressed coping fully mediated the relationship between subtle PRD and cannabis use. Distressed coping did not mediate the relation between blatant PRD and cannabis use. Institutions might focus on reducing PRD and provide support to Black students to lessen its link to distressed coping and cannabis use.
KW - Cannabis use
KW - black college students
KW - coping motivations
KW - distressed coping
KW - racial discrimination
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U2 - 10.1080/02791072.2021.1990443
DO - 10.1080/02791072.2021.1990443
M3 - Article
C2 - 34694206
AN - SCOPUS:85118098774
SN - 0279-1072
VL - 53
SP - 404
EP - 412
JO - Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
JF - Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
IS - 5
ER -