Date October 24, 2025
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Discrimination drives up substance use risk among youth of color, new study finds

By Carl Dimitri

Amidst a reversal in youth substance-use trends, a new study links experiences of discrimination among young people of color to an increased risk of turning to substances as a coping mechanism.

Since the early 1990s, White youth have consistently reported higher rates of alcohol, tobacco and cannabis use than youth of color. But that trend has flipped. Black and Hispanic youth now report greater substance use than their White counterparts, a shift one recent study from researchers at the Brown University School of Public Health suggests may be linked to increased experiences of discrimination among young people of color.

The paper, which was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, was led by Robert Rosales, assistant professor of behavioral and social sciences at Brown. It is the first study to directly connect discrimination with the willingness and intention to use substances—known predictors of later substance use among children.

“Kids who experience discrimination are dealing with stressors that others might not face,” Rosales said. “And when we experience stress, we draw on certain coping skills to get through it. If a young person lacks coping strategies, or if they’ve tried the ones they know and they’re not working, they might turn to less healthy ways of coping—such as alcohol or tobacco.”

For the new study, Rosales and his team analyzed the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study of 2024-2025, which involved nearly 12,000 young people between the ages of 9 and 10. 

The investigators parsed the data to determine the prevalence of substance use for all youth, examined whether those prevalences differed by ethnicity or race, tested whether race, ethnicity and discrimination independently predicted substance use, and assessed whether the interaction between race/ethnicity and discrimination predicted susceptibility and lifetime use. 

Kids who experience discrimination are dealing with stressors that others might not face. And when we experience stress, we draw on certain coping skills to get through it. If a young person lacks coping strategies, or if they’ve tried the ones they know and they’re not working, they might turn to less healthy ways of coping—such as alcohol or tobacco.

Robert Rosales assistant professor of behavioral and social sciences
 
Robert Rosales, assistant professor of behavioral and social sciences at Brown

“We had this really rich data of adolescents in the US as young as 9 that had not been tapped into to help explain this growing trend in substance use among youth of color.,” Rosales said. “We suspected that discrimination, especially since the pandemic, would help explain some of these trends. I was fortunate enough to have colleagues (e.g., Marybel Robledo Gonzalez) who advocated for the inclusion of questions about culture and discrimination in this ABCD survey, making it easier for us to study this question.” 

The researchers acknowledge that the COVID-19 pandemic may have played a role, as youth of color had less access to treatment and structured activities. But these same children, especially those from immigrant communities, also had more exposure to discrimination. “This creates a chronic stress burden,” Rosales and co-authors wrote in the study, “that accumulates over time to diminish a person’s ability to cope, making them more susceptible to substance use.”

The researchers also cite longitudinal studies showing that discrimination among Black 10 to 12-year-olds was predictive of problematic substance use roughly five years later. Similar findings were reported on Hispanic 9th graders in Los Angeles, Asian teens in the Northeast and multiracial teens across the country. 

Rosales stresses the importance of preventive interventions for kids as young as 9 or 10–especially for those who are at higher risk–to reduce the impact of discrimination and its link to substance use before those behaviors begin. Additionally, and ideally, he advocates for policies ensuring children of color have the same opportunities as everyone else.

“If we stop paying attention to social and health disparities, we lose sight of how they’re changing and persisting,” he said. “The truth is, racism and discrimination are still very much present in our society, and kids still experience them. We need to highlight that reality—not to dwell on it—but to find real solutions, expand prevention efforts and continue to push for funding that keeps this work alive and visible.”

Tags
BSS / BSHS CAAS Child & Adolescent Health Tobacco, Alcohol and Cannabis Use Research News

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