نشخوار خشم ارتباط بین تبعیض قومی ادراک شده و رفتارهای پرخطر را تعدیل می کند

Perceived ethnic discrimination (PED) is associated with increased engagement in risky behaviors in ethnic minority emerging adults. Risky behaviors may reflect efforts to cope with emotional distress like depression or anxiety resulting from PED, particularly for individuals with poor emotion regulation skills. We hypothesized that the association between PED and risky behaviors would be particularly strong for emerging adults with tendencies for angry rumination. We further hypothesized that increased depressive and anxious symptoms would mediate the effect of the PED-rumination interaction on risky behaviors. In this survey study, 155 ethnic minority college students completed measures of PED, depressive and anxiety symptoms, trait angry rumination, and risky behaviors. Analyses revealed that angry rumination moderated the association between PED and greater risky behaviors. Depressive and anxiety symptoms did not mediate this effect. Although cross-sectional, these findings suggest that individuals with poor coping skills may be especially likely to respond to stressors such as PED by engaging in risky behaviors. Implications include using rumination-focused interventions in order to prevent engagement in risky behaviors in ethnic minority emerging adults.

Individuals of all ethnic minority groups who perceive greater discrimination report worse depression, anxiety, and physical health (Paradies, 2006 and Pascoe and Richman, 2009). Another important potential outcome of perceived ethnic discrimination (PED) is risky behaviors, such as unsafe sexual practices, aggressive and/or violent behaviors, rule breaking, dangerous and/or illegal behaviors, self-injurious behaviors, and alcohol and/or drug use (Auerbach, Abela, & Ho, 2007). Substantial past research has examined associations between PED and these types of risky behaviors in adolescents and young adults (for reviews, see Paradies, 2006 and Priest et al., 2013). However, these reviews suggest that one-third of studies find no association between PED and risky behaviors, suggesting the presence of moderating factors. In this study, we examined whether angry rumination moderates the association between PED and risky behaviors in ethnic minority emerging adults. We also explored whether the interaction between angry rumination and PED is associated with increased depressive and anxious symptoms and whether these symptoms in turn explain greater risky behaviors.