Race-Related Stress, Types of Illicit Drug Use and Years of Lifetime Drug Use for Incarcerated African American Men Nearing Re-Entry

Introduction: Racism and discrimination have been empirically established as significant social stressors that impact the well-being and health of racial minorities. However, little is known about the association between race-related stress and multiple types of illicit drug use and use in lifetime for men. This study explores the influence of racism on drug choice and patterns of lifetime use and investigates if social support is a protective factor for incarcerated African American men.  

Methods: Data was derived from a non-probability sample of 208 African American incarcerated men nearing release. Race-related stress was measured using three subscales: cultural racism (11-items examining stress to denigration of one’s culture), institutional racism (6-items examining stress induced by racism masked by institutional policy/practice), and individual racism (6-items examining acts of racism experienced in the social environment), as well as summing all items from each subscale to gauge total global racism (22-items examining adverse experiences associated with perceived racist events). Response choices range from “(0) never happened to (5) this event happened, and I was extremely upset.” Binary logistic regression analyses were conducted to ascertain whether cultural, institutional, individual, and global race-related stress are associated with use of a particular drug. Multiple regression analyses were used to examine race-related stress and lifetime drug use. Additionally, moderating analyses were conducted to explore whether social supports serve as moderators.

Results: Findings suggest increased levels of institutional racism (OR = 1.071, p < 0.05) and global racism (OR = 1.020, p < 0.05) are associated with increased odds of using crack cocaine. Further, increased levels of institutional racism, (OR = 1.080, p < 0.05), global racism, (OR = 1.019, p < 0.05), and cultural racism (OR = 1.034, p < 0.05) are associated with increased odds of using powder cocaine. Multiple regression results reveal increase levels of perceived race-related stress in cultural racism (β = .221, t(85) = 2.99, p < 0.05) is associated with an increase in the number of years of regular cannabis use, controlling for age, education, prior incarceration, and length of incarceration in lifetime. Across all models, family (p < .10) and total (p < .10) support (summation of friends, family, and significant other subscales) were the only statistically significant variables moderating the association between cultural racism and use of powder cocaine.  

Conclusion/Implications: Findings conclude African American men who experience race-related stress have a greater likelihood of using crack and powder cocaine. Additionally, racism increases years of regular cannabis use. Given that social support is a protective factor for African American men who experience cultural race-related stress, practice and research implications should include: (1) needs assessment prior to release to determine level of social support, (2) post-release/re-entry referrals to external resources (e.g. 12-step programs, counseling, and rehabilitation), and (3) studies examining culturally specific moderators (e.g., John Heneryism for Active Coping) to ascertain whether this coping mechanism buffers against the harmful effects of institutional and global race-related stress.