The Role of Discrimination in Alcohol Abuse and Anxiety

Black Americans are disproportionately susceptible to substance abuse in the form of alcohol abuse. In tandem with Black Americans's experience living in America being intertwined with perceptions of discrimination, this stressful experience of racial oppression may intensify the frequency alcohol abuse and related mental health consequenses. The current study will examine the moderating role of discrimination on alcohol abuse as a predictor of anxiety in African Americans. This moderation analysis will pull from existing research within a sample of approximately 500 sexual minority men of color, across measures of the Everyday Discrimination Scale, Anxiety measure, and Alcohol Use and Substance Use Disorders measures. In our analysis, we expect discrimination to amplify the association between everyday alcohol abuse and anxiety symptoms. Conceptually, we hypothesize that such findings could be attributed to alcohol abuse being used as a coping mechanism in response to chronic societal discrimination. Through the intoxication resulting from this alcohol abuse, cognitive appraisals of discriminatory experiences in the lives of racial minorities in the United States, may proliferate heightened anxiety symptoms. Implications of these research findings will encourage further research into health disparities in substance abuse inadvertently proliferate social issues in racial discrimination.