Racism and alcohol-related problems among black adults: The role of negative emotionality to experiencing racism.

INTRODUCTION: Although Black Americans tend to consume less alcohol than non-Hispanic/Latine White Americans, Black Americans who do drink alcohol appear at especially high risk for negative alcohol-related problems. This alcohol-based health disparity indicates a need to identify psycho-sociocultural factors that may play a role in drinking and related problems to inform prevention and treatment efforts. Minority stress-based models posit that stressors such as racism increase negative emotions, which may be associated with using substances such as alcohol to cope with negative emotions. Yet, little research has directly assessed emotional reactions to racism and whether it plays a role in drinking-related behaviors. METHOD: Participants were 164 Black American undergraduates at a racially/ethnically diverse university who endorsed current alcohol use 18-48 (M = 21.7, SD = 4.3). Participants completed an online survey regarding their experiences with racism and alcohol-related behaviors. RESULTS: Experiencing more frequent racism was related to greater negative emotions experienced in response to racism (i.e., negative emotional reactivity to racism) and alcohol-related problems. More frequent racism was related to more alcohol-related problems via the sequential effects of negative emotional reactivity to racism and coping motivated drinking. CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate that the experience of negative emotions that occur after experiencing racism and attempts to cope with those negative emotions by consuming alcohol play important roles in drinking behaviors among Black Americans.

John Henryism Active Coping and COVID-19 policy compliance.

The aim of this paper is to examine whether the way one copes with stressful situations, as measured by John Henryism Active Coping (JHAC), influences behavioral responses to the pandemic, such as whether they engaged in mask wearing, social distancing, and hand washing. The data for this study come from the 2020 Blair Center Poll, which was conducted by the Blair Center of Southern Politics and Society at the University of Arkansas. Results show that high JHAC had a significant effect on COVID-19 policy compliance. Additionally, there was an interaction effect between JHAC and race on COVID-19 policy compliance. This effect was significant for only African Americans and Hispanics-not Whites. In other words, among African Americans and Hispanics, high JHAC had a significant effect on their compliance with COVID-19 policies. These findings suggest that coping structures policy compliance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gender differences in African Americans' reactions to and coping with discrimination: Results from The National Study of American Life.

The aim of this paper is to examine coping behaviors in the context of discrimination and possible gender-specific differences among a national sample of African American adults in the 2001-2003 National Survey of American Life (NSAL). Results show that in multivariable logistic regression models, African American women (vs. African American men) were less likely to accept discrimination as a fact of life but were more likely to get mad about experiences of discrimination, pray about it, and talk to someone. After adjusting for differences in the frequency of discrimination, African American women were also significantly more likely to try to do something about it. African American men were more likely to accept discrimination as a fact of life with higher frequency of day-to-day discrimination while women tended to talk to someone with a higher frequency of day-to-day discrimination and lifetime discrimination. These findings suggest gender differences in behavior concerning discrimination.