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The Influence of Racial/Ethnic Discrimination Experiences on Cigarette Craving for African American and Hispanic Smokers

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Abstract

Background

Despite African Americans and Hispanics smoking equal or fewer cigarettes than White smokers, they experience more smoking-related diseases and have lower cessation rates, possibly due to cultural stress. This study examined the influence of racial/ethnic discrimination experiences in comparison to a general negative affect experience on cigarette craving among African American and Hispanic smokers.

Methods

African American and Hispanic smokers (N = 34) completed two writing tasks: one to elicit distressing experiences of racial/ethnic discrimination and another to elicit distressing experiences of academic/job-related failure. Participants completed both tasks after being randomized into two groups to counterbalance order of tasks. Participants completed pre- and post-task measurements of cigarette craving and negative affect and were asked to retrospectively rate the level of distress produced by each experience about which they wrote. A series of ANOVAs were computed to assess differences in each condition.

Results

Cigarette craving significantly increased from baseline to post racial/ethnic discrimination task and post academic/job failure task (ps < 0.05). Negative affect did not increase from baseline to post-task for either group (ps > 0.05). The post academic/job-related failure writing task cigarette craving was significantly related to the distress rating of this task when controlling for negative affect (p < 0.05) but not the racial/ethnic discrimination task.

Conclusions

Results suggest recollection of racial/ethnic discrimination experiences has a similar impact on cigarette craving as recollection of academic/job-related failure experiences. It is important to examine cultural experiences linked to cigarette use among racial/ethnic minorities and continue experimental research among racial/ethnic minority smokers.

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Funding

The research described in this manuscript was supported by a grant to the author from the American Psychological Association. The writing of this manuscript was partly supported by the Office of Academic Affiliations, Advanced Fellowship Program in Mental Illness Research and Treatment, Department of Veterans Affairs; and by the South Central Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center. This work was also supported in part by Center of Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness and Safety (CIN 13-413). The opinions expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Department of Veterans Affairs, the US government, or Baylor College of Medicine.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Houston VA HRS&D Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness and Safety, Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center (MEDVAMC 152), 2002 Holcombe Blvd., Houston, TX, 77030, USA

    Darius B. Dawson & Terri L. Fletcher

  2. Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

    Darius B. Dawson & Terri L. Fletcher

  3. South Central Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center, Houston, TX, USA

    Darius B. Dawson & Terri L. Fletcher

  4. Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    Darius B. Dawson

Authors
  1. Darius B. Dawson
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  2. Terri L. Fletcher
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Contributions

D.D. conceived the presented idea, carried out the experiment, and performed analyses. D.D. and T.F. completed manuscript writing and interpretations of project findings. T.F. supervised the project. Both authors discussed the results and contributed to the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Darius B. Dawson.

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Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethics Approval

The study procedures were approved by The University of Texas at Austin Institutional Review Board and were in accordance with the ethical standards of the IRB (IRB#: 2017-08-0108).

Consent to Participate

Participants were asked to give verbal consent at the beginning of the study and were provided with a consent form for their records, as a waiver of written consent was approved for this study.

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Dawson, D.B., Fletcher, T.L. The Influence of Racial/Ethnic Discrimination Experiences on Cigarette Craving for African American and Hispanic Smokers. J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities 8, 1047–1053 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-020-00861-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-020-00861-0

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