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Youth interpersonal firearm violence disproportionately affects Black youth, with residential racial segregation as a key determinant. Racially segregated neighborhoods, which are economically isolated (e.g., neighborhood disadvantage), are linked to increased exposure to violence. This exposure, in turn, is a determinant of youth firearm aggression (i.e., using a gun on someone else). Mechanisms from residential racial segregation to firearm aggression, however, have not been evaluated. Therefore, we tested neighborhood disadvantage and exposure to violence as mediators in the association between residential racial segregation and youth firearm aggression. Participants were 338 Black youth who had used drugs in the past 6 months and sought care in an urban emergency department. Using serial mediation analysis, residential racial segregation was indirectly associated with youth firearm aggression via neighborhood disadvantage and then exposure to violence. While researchers have documented the association between structural racism and firearm violence injury and incidents, our study assessed multiple socioecological mechanisms simultaneously. Identifying the downstream socioecological consequences of residential segregation can guide the development of firearm aggression prevention programs addressing the consequences of racism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Racial discrimination jeopardizes a wide range of health behaviors for African Americans. Numerous studies demonstrate significant negative associations between racial discrimination and problematic alcohol use among African Americans. Culturally specific contexts (e.g., organized religious involvement) often function protectively against racial discrimination's adverse effects for many African Americans. Yet organized religious involvement may affect the degree to which racial discrimination increases problematic alcohol use resulting in various alcohol use trajectories. These links remain understudied in emerging adulthood marked by when individuals transition from adolescence to early adult roles and responsibilities. We use data from 496 African American emerging adults from the Flint Adolescent Study (FAS) to (a) identify multiple and distinct alcohol use trajectories and (b) examine organizational religious involvement's protective role. Three trajectory classes were identified: the high/stable, (20.76% of sample; n = 103); moderate/stable, (39.52% of sample; n = 196); and low/rising, (39.72% of the sample; n = 197). After controlling for sex, educational attainment, and general stress, the interaction between racial discrimination and organized religious involvement did not influence the likelihood of classifying into the moderate/stable class or the low/rising class, compared with the high/stable class. These results suggest organized religious involvement counteracts, but does not buffer racial discrimination's effects on problematic alcohol use. Findings emphasize the critical need for culturally sensitive prevention efforts incorporating organized religious involvement for African American emerging adults exposed to racial discrimination. These prevention efforts may lessen the role of racial discrimination on health disparities related to alcohol use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have documented the negative associations between racial discrimination and alcohol use for young Black people, yet fewer researchers have examined these associations longitudinally and with racial identity as a protective factor. We use data from the Flint Adolescent Study (465 Black/African Americans) to investigate the relationship between discrimination and alcohol-related problems over time, and how that relationship differs with varying trajectories of racial identity (i.e., private and public regard). Among those reporting persistently moderate levels of private regard and high levels of public regard in late adolescence through emerging adulthood, increases in racial discrimination were associated with increases in alcohol-related problems over time. Findings suggest that regard for one's racial group may function protectively in the health strategies employed in response to discriminatory events. More longitudinal research is needed to delineate how varying racial pride operates with regard to long-term discrimination and behavioral health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the associations between individual, institutional, and cultural race-related stress and somatic and cognitive anxiety. We adopted a risk and resilience framework to investigate the protective role of optimism and religious involvement in the race-related stress-anxiety link. A total of 171 African American young adults completed measures of race-related stress, optimism, religious involvement, and anxiety symptomatology. Institutional race-related stress was positively associated with cognitive and somatic anxiety. Optimism moderated the association between individual race-related stress and cognitive anxiety. Religious involvement enhanced the protective function of optimism in the association between individual and cultural race-related stress and cognitive anxiety. These results illustrate the utility of a multidimensional framework for understanding the impact of race-related stress on anxiety symptomatology. Moreover, the pattern of findings suggests that high religious involvement and high optimism may produce the most advantageous outcomes with respect to the association between race-related stress and anxiety in African American young adults. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present study examined the association between racial identity and patterns of emotional responses to blatant and subtle racial discrimination vignettes in a sample of 129 African American college students. Using latent profile analyses, we identified eight patterns of emotional responses to the scenarios. Multinomial logistic regression analyses revealed that racial identity was associated with these response patterns. Specifically, private and public regard were related to profiles in the blatant condition, while private regard, centrality, and nationalist ideology were related to profiles in the subtle condition. These findings suggest that there are varied ways in which African American youth respond emotionally to discrimination and that the significance and meaning that one places on race may affect these responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: We investigate whether exposure to violence (ETV) during adolescence and emerging adulthood predicts engagement in chronic disease-related health risk behaviors years later among African Americans.Design: A longitudinal study following youth from mid-adolescence (mean age = 14.8 years) to young adulthood (mean age = 32.0 years).Setting: Flint, Michigan.Sample: Four hundred forty-two African American (96.2%) and mixed African American and White (3.8%) participants.Measures: Outcomes were diet, smoking, drinking, and physical inactivity. Covariates were ETV, sex, mother's educational attainment, and substance use by siblings, peers, and parents.Analysis: Latent profile analysis was conducted to identify distinct patterns of adult health risk behaviors and assess the association of youth ETV and identified patterns.Results: Four latent profiles were identified: high substance use (n = 46; 10.41%), high overall risk (n = 71; 16.06%), low overall risk (n = 140; 31.67%) and inactive (n = 185, 41.86%). Relative to the low overall risk profile, ETV was associated with being in the high overall risk profile (b = 0.37, p = 0.04), but not other profiles. Female gender and higher maternal education were associated with being in the inactive profile compared to the low overall risk profile. Peer alcohol and tobacco use were associated with being in the high substance use profile.Conclusion: ETV during adolescence and emerging adulthood increased the risk of engagement in multiple health risk behaviors later in life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]