title: The erosive effects of racism: reduced self-control mediates the relation between perceived racial discrimination and substance use in African American adolescents.
abstract: Perceived racial discrimination, self-control, anger, and either substance use or use cognitions were assessed in 2 studies conducted with samples of African American adolescents. The primary goal was to examine the relation between discrimination and self-control over time; a 2nd goal was to determine whether that relation mediates the link between discrimination and substance use found in previous research. Study 1, which included a latent growth curve analysis with 3 waves of data, indicated that experience with discrimination (from age 10 years to age 18 years) was associated with reduced self-control, which then predicted increased substance use. Additional analyses indicated anger was also a mediator of this discrimination to use relation. Study 2, which was experimental, showed that envisioning an experience involving discrimination was associated with an increase in substance-related responses to double entendre words (e.g., pot, roach) in a word association task, especially for participants who were low in dispositional self-control. The effect was again mediated by reports of anger. Thus, the "double mediation" pattern was discrimination → more anger and reduced self-control → increased substance use and/or substance cognitions. Results are discussed in terms of the long-term impact of discrimination on self-control and health behavior. Implications for interventions aimed at ameliorating the negative effects of discrimination and low self-control on health are also discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA.
authors.forename: Frederick X
authors.initials: FX
authors.lastname: Gibbons
authors.forename: Ross E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: O'Hara
authors.forename: Michelle L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Stock
authors.forename: Meg
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gerrard
authors.forename: Chih-Yuan
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Weng
authors.forename: Thomas A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Wills
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology*; D000786:Anger; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005845:Georgia; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D007484:Iowa; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011287:Prejudice; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012044:Regression Analysis; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D014936:Word Association Tests; D055815:Young Adult