Racism’s Hidden Threat
Diverse, VA
05-16-07
Racism’s Hidden Threat
Discrimination is hurtful and nasty, but researchers are now discovering that it
can lead to drug abuse as well. Psychologists at Iowa State University studied
more than 600 Black adolescents from Georgia and Iowa and found that those
who experience racial discrimination prior to age 12 are twice as likely to use
drugs by the time they’re teens. In fact, incidents of racial discrimination are the
strongest predictors of subsequent drug use among Black teens. Among those
who experienced early discrimination and also exhibited some form of conduct
disorder — such as vandalism or burglary — more than half reported drug use
within five years of the experience, researchers found.
“In making that conclusion, it should be emphasized that African-American kids
use substances, including drugs, significantly less than White kids — in spite of
the fact that they experience this additional stress [from discrimination],” says Dr.
Rick Gibbons of ISU’s Institute for Social and Behavioral Research.