Department of Health Services Management and Policy, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN, United States.
Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, United States.
Drug Alcohol Depend. 2022 Mar 1;232:109304. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2022.109304. Epub 2022 Jan 13.
The current study examines the association of perceived racial and social class discrimination with cannabis involvement among Black youth and young adults.
This secondary analysis used data from the Missouri Family Study (MOFAM), a high-risk longitudinal family study of alcohol use disorder, oversampled for Black families. Offspring (n = 806) and their mothers were interviewed by telephone. Cox proportional hazards regression analyzes were used to examine associations of racial and social class discrimination (experienced by offspring and their mothers) with offspring cannabis involvement. Two stages of cannabis involvement were analyzed: timing of 1) initiation and 2) transition from initiation to first cannabis use disorder (CUD) symptom.
The study found that offspring report of experiencing racial (HR: 1.28, CI: 1.01-1.62) and social class discrimination (HR: 1.45, CI: 1.14-1.84) were associated with cannabis initiation in our fully adjusted model. Mothers' report of discrimination predicted a lower hazard of cannabis initiation among offspring (HR: 0.79, CI: 0.64-0.98). Offspring social class discrimination (HR: 2.45, CI: 1.71-3.51) predicted an increased hazard of transition from initiation to first CUD symptom, while offspring racial discrimination (HR: 0.57, CI: 0.39-0.85) was associated with lower hazard of transition in our fully adjusted model.
As rates for cannabis use among Black youth are disproportionately rising, there is a critical need to identify pathways to its use among Black youth. These findings suggest racial and social class discrimination may be important targets in efforts to prevent cannabis involvement among Black youth and emerging adults.
本研究考察了黑人群体中青少年和年轻人感知到的种族和社会阶层歧视与大麻使用之间的关联。
本二次分析使用了密苏里家庭研究（MOFAM）的数据，这是一项针对酒精使用障碍的高风险纵向家庭研究，对黑人家族进行了超额抽样。通过电话对后代（n=806）及其母亲进行了访谈。使用 Cox 比例风险回归分析来研究后代和他们的母亲所经历的种族和社会阶层歧视与后代大麻使用之间的关联。分析了两个阶段的大麻使用情况：1）开始使用大麻的时间，以及 2）从开始使用大麻到出现第一个大麻使用障碍（CUD）症状的时间。
研究发现，后代报告的种族歧视（HR：1.28，CI：1.01-1.62）和社会阶层歧视（HR：1.45，CI：1.14-1.84）与我们完全调整后的模型中大麻使用的开始有关。母亲报告的歧视预测了后代大麻使用开始的风险较低（HR：0.79，CI：0.64-0.98）。后代的社会阶层歧视（HR：2.45，CI：1.71-3.51）预测了从开始使用大麻到出现第一个 CUD 症状的过渡的风险增加，而后代的种族歧视（HR：0.57，CI：0.39-0.85）与我们完全调整后的模型中过渡风险较低有关。
由于黑人群体中使用大麻的比例不成比例地上升，因此迫切需要确定黑人群体中使用大麻的途径。这些发现表明，种族和社会阶层歧视可能是预防黑人群体中青少年和新兴成年人使用大麻的重要目标。
