title: Perceived racial discrimination and negative-mood-related drinking among African American college students.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Research consistently shows a positive association between racial discrimination and problematic alcohol use among African Americans, but little is known about the micro-processes linking this pernicious form of stress to drinking. One possibility is that the cumulative effects of discrimination increase individuals' likelihood of negative-mood-related drinking. In the current study, we examined whether individual differences in lifetime perceived racial discrimination among African American college students moderate relations between daily negative moods and evening alcohol consumption in both social and nonsocial contexts.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data came from an online daily diary study of 441 African Americans (58% female) enrolled at a historically black college/university. Lifetime discrimination was measured at baseline. For 30 days, students reported the number of drinks they consumed the night before both socially and nonsocially, as well as their daytime level of negative mood.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In support of the hypotheses, only men who reported higher (vs. lower) lifetime discrimination showed a positive association between daily negative mood and that evening's level of nonsocial drinking. Contrary to expectation, women who reported higher (vs. lower) discrimination showed a negative association between daily negative mood and nonsocial drinking. Neither daily negative mood nor lifetime discrimination predicted level of social drinking.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings provide further evidence that the cumulative impact of racial discrimination may produce a vulnerability to negative-mood-related drinking--but only for African American men. Importantly, these effects emerged only for nonsocial drinking, which may further explain the robust association between discrimination and problematic alcohol use.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine and Health Care, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Connecticut, Department of Psychiatry, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Connecticut.
authors.forename: Ross E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: O'Hara
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, New Jersey.
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Armeli
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics and Human Genetics and Alcohol Research Center, Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC.
authors.forename: Denise M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Connecticut.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Covault
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine and Health Care, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Connecticut.
authors.forename: Howard
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tennen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology*; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008297:Male; D010465:Perception; D063505:Racism / Q000523:psychology*; D013334:Students / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult