Online racism, psychological distress, and alcohol use among racial minority women and men: A multi-group mediation analysis.

Abstract

We examined whether alcohol use may be linked to stress associated with online racism as a risky coping behavior among racial minority adults, and potential gender differences across women and men. We tested parallel stress pathways in which we hypothesized that exposure to online racism would be indirectly related to alcohol use severity via general psychological distress and social media-related stress. With data from 395 racial/ethnicminority adults (M-age = 34.12; 57% women; 40% Black/African American, 23% Asian/Asian American, 20% Hispanic/Latinx American), we conducted amulti-group path analysis of online racism (Perceived Online Racism Scale) predicting alcohol use severity (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test) mediated by social media-related stress and psychological distress (Kessler-6) across women and men. Psychological distress was a significant partial mediator for women and men, but social media-related stress was a significant partial mediator only for women. In line with cyberbullying literature noting a greater risk of online victimization for women, racial minority women may be experiencing social media-related stress in addition to general psychological distress associated with online racism that places them at greater risk of alcohol-related coping. Our findings suggest that online racism may be a contemporary digital burden that may drive detrimental health behaviors such as alcohol use and present initial evidence to advance future prevention research.