Associations of General and Multiracial-Specific Discrimination with Psychological Distress and Substance Use in Multiracial College Students.

OBJECTIVES: Multiracial (alternatively, mixed-race or biracial) college students report higher rates of alcohol/substance use than their monoracial peers, yet factors associated with this disparity remain understudied. Guided by minority stress and tension-reduction frameworks, associations of general and Multiracial discrimination experiences with psychological distress and substance use were investigated. METHODS: Cross-sectional data obtained from a convenience sample of 193 Multiracial college students (Mage=20.34 [SD = 1.32], 30% Male, 31% fraternity/sorority affiliation) were used. Multiracial college students reported their lifetime discriminatory experiences (general and Multiracial-specific), psychological distress (i.e., depressive and anxiety symptoms), and past-year alcohol/substance (alcohol, cannabis, and tobacco) use frequencies. Fully saturated structural regression models were used to test relations of general discrimination and a latent Multiracial-specific factor with a latent substance use factor with and without psychological distress in the model. RESULTS: Without psychological distress in the model, Multiracial-specific (but not general) discrimination experiences were positively associated with substance use (β = 0.29, 95% CI [0.02, 0.57], p = 0.04). With psychological distress in the model, however, neither Multiracial-specific nor general discrimination were directly associated with substance use. Instead, Multiracial (but not general) discrimination predicted psychological distress (β = 0.26, 95% CI [0.06, 0.46], p = 0.01), and psychological distress and substance use were positively associated with each other (β = 0.39 [95% CI [0.05, 0.59], p = 0.003). Ancillary analyses further indicated the mediating role of psychological distress in the discrimination-substance use association. CONCLUSIONS: The novel findings suggest roles of Multiracial-specific discrimination by peers and family members and psychological distress in heightened substance use among Multiracial college students. Leveraging prospective methodologies is critical to determine temporal order.