Profiles of stress and their associations with substance use among adults of color.

Abstract

People of Color (POC) in the United States experience a variety of stressors stemming from multiple contextual domains; coping with such stressors has been linked to various substance use behaviors. However, person-centered studies identifying the distinct and related patterns of stress among POC are lacking and thus limiting for informing substance use intervention approaches. Latent profile analysis was performed to identify latent subgroups of stress profiles among racial/ethnic minority US adults who report current substance use (N = 964). We examined the associations between demographic characteristics and profile membership and simultaneously the associations between profile membership and substance use. Four distinct stress profiles were identified: "Low Stress," "Normative Stress," "Racialized Stress," and "Multi-Domain High Stress". Mean levels of substance use were significantly higher among "Racialized Stress," "Normative Stress," and "Multi-Domain High Stress" compared to the "Low Stress" group. POC in the US experience a constellation of stressors rooted in systemic social inequities. The Racialized Stress profile, characterized by racial discrimination and cultural stress, represents a high-risk group for substance use despite not necessarily experiencing the highest levels of overall stress, suggesting that the type and combination of stressors (and not just their intensity) matters. Understanding these unique latent stress profiles and their associations with substance use is important to better characterize the lived experiences of POC and implement targeted interventions to help POC cope with and navigate these stressors.