Perceived Discrimination and Heavy Episodic Drinking Among African-American Youth: Differences by Age and Reason for Discrimination.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to examine whether associations between perceived discrimination and heavy episodic drinking (HED) vary by age and by discrimination type (e.g., racial, age, physical appearance) among African-American youth.


METHODS
National data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics Transition to Adulthood Study were analyzed. Youth participated in up to four interviews (2005, 2007, 2009, 2011; n = 657) between ages 18 and 25 years. Respondents reported past-year engagement in HED (four or more drinks for females, five or more drinks for males) and frequency of discriminatory acts experienced (e.g., receiving poor service, being treated with less courtesy). Categorical latent growth curve models, including perceived discrimination types (racial, age, and physical appearance) as a time-varying predictors of HED, were run. Controls for gender, birth cohort, living arrangement in adolescence, familial wealth, parental alcohol use, and college attendance were explored.


RESULTS
The average HED trajectory was curvilinear (increasing followed by flattening), whereas perceived discrimination remained flat with age. In models including controls, odds of HED were significantly higher than average around ages 20-21 years with greater frequency of perceived racial discrimination; associations were not significant at other ages. Discrimination attributed to age or physical appearance was not associated with HED at any age.


CONCLUSIONS
Perceived racial discrimination may be a particularly salient risk factor for HED around the ages of transition to legal access to alcohol among African-American youth. Interventions to reduce discrimination or its impact could be targeted before this transition to ameliorate the negative outcomes associated with HED.
Department of Global Community Health and Behavioral Sciences, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana. Electronic address: aspriggs@tulane.edu.
Aubrey Spriggs
AS
Madkour
Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Brown School of Public Health, Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, Providence, Rhode Island.
Kristina
K
Jackson
Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Heng
H
Wang
Department of Global Community Health and Behavioral Sciences, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Thomas T
TT
Miles
Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Frances
F
Mather
Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Arti
A
Shankar
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D000367:Age Factors; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000208:ethnology*; D063425:Binge Drinking / Q000208:ethnology*; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015233:Models, Statistical; D063508:Social Discrimination / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult
Discrimination; Early adulthood; Heavy episodic drinking; Minority health