Race/ethnic differences in the association of anxiety, depression, and discrimination with subsequent nicotine and cannabis use among young adults: A prospective longitudinal study

INTRODUCTION

The shifting patterns in nicotine and cannabis use among young adults is taking place at a time when there is also increased reports of psychosocial stressors such as anxiety, depression, and everyday discrimination. Although race/ethnicity has been found to moderate the impact of psychosocial stressors, there is limited research examining the association of anxiety, depression, and discrimination with patterns of nicotine and/or cannabis product use among diverse young adults.

METHODS

Data were from a longitudinal study of 2478 US young adults surveyed between 2019 and 2021. General estimating equation models were used to examine associations of self-reported psychological symptoms (depression, anxiety) and social stressors (discrimination) with substance use (any nicotine and cannabis product use; nicotine and cannabis vaping).

RESULTS

Young adults from different racial/ethnic groups differed significantly in their depression and discrimination scores with young adults of color having higher mean scores. Overall, higher depression and everyday discrimination score was associated with increased odds of past 6-month use of any nicotine/tobacco and cannabis products. Higher generalized anxiety score increased odds of any nicotine/tobacco and dual nicotine and cannabis product use. Higher everyday discrimination score was associated with increased odds nicotine and cannabis vaping overall. Stratified models showed variation in associations among different racial/ethnic groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Psychosocial stressors are associated with increased substance use odds among young adults. However, these stressors have a differential impact on substance use odds among young adults from different racial/ethnic contexts.

Black Emotions Matter: Understanding the Impact of Racial Oppression on Black Youth's Emotional Development: Dismantling Systems of Racism and Oppression During Adolescence: Dismantling Systems of Racism and Oppression During Adolescence

Black US Americans' emotions are subject to stereotypes about the anger and aggression of Black people. These stereotypes are readily applied to Black adolescents' emotions. The purpose of this conceptual paper is to operationalize racial oppression in the emotional lives of Black adolescents through an application of García Coll et al.'s (1996) ecological model for minority youth development. We specify emotionally inhibitive features of Black adolescents' schools, the adaptive culture of Black Americans in the United States that responds to emotional inhibition, Black families' emotion socialization processes, and Black adolescents' emotional flexibility behaviors. Throughout, we integrate findings from research on Black adolescents' emotional adjustment with research on cultural values, emotion and racial socialization, school-based racial experiences, and theory on emotion and cultural navigation.

Social Media Use, Physical Activity, and Internalizing Symptoms in Adolescence: Cross-sectional Analysis

BACKGROUND

Most American adolescents have access to smartphones, and recent estimates suggest that they spend considerable time on social media compared with other physical and leisure activities. A large body of literature has established that social media use is related to poor mental health, but the complicated relationship between social media and symptoms of depression and anxiety in adolescents is yet to be fully understood.

OBJECTIVE

We aim to investigate the relationship between social media use and depression and anxiety symptoms in adolescents by exploring physical activity as a mediator.

METHODS

A Qualtrics survey manager recruited adult panel participants between February and March 2019, who indicated that they had adolescent children who spoke English. A total of 4592 adolescent-parent dyads completed the survey that took approximately 39 minutes. The survey entailed completing web-based questionnaires assessing various aspects of social media use, psychological symptoms, and psychosocial factors. The average age of the adolescent participants was 14.62 (SD 1.68; range 12-17) years, and the majority of the adolescent sample was male (2392/4592, 52.09%).

RESULTS

Total social media use was associated with more depressive symptoms (multiple R²=0.12; F_3,4480=207.1; P<.001), anxiety (multiple R²=0.09; F_3,4477=145.6; P<.001), and loneliness (multiple R²=0.06; F_3,4512=98.06; P<.001), controlling for age and gender. Physical activity was associated with decreased depression and anxiety symptoms after controlling for other extracurricular activities and social media use (multiple R²=0.24; F_5,4290=266.0; P<.001). There were significant differences in symptoms based on gender: female adolescents reported higher rates of social media use and males reported higher rates of depression. Nonbinary and transgender adolescents had higher rates of depression, anxiety, and loneliness than the female and male adolescents in the sample.

CONCLUSIONS

In a nationally representative sample of adolescents, more social media use was associated with more severe symptoms of depression, anxiety, and loneliness. Increased physical activity was associated with decreased depression and anxiety symptoms. Physical activity partially mediated the relationship between social media use and depression and anxiety. As this was a cross-sectional study, we cannot conclude that social media use causes internalizing symptoms or that physical activity leads to decreased internalizing symptoms-there may be additional confounding variables producing the relationships we observed. Physical activity may protect against the potentially harmful effect of social media on some adolescents. The effect sizes were small to medium, and the results should be interpreted with caution. Other limitations of this study include our reliance on self-reporting. Future work should examine social media use beyond how much time adolescents spend using social media and instead focus on the nature of social media activity.

Traditional risk and cultural protection: Correlates of alcohol and cannabis co-use among African-American adolescents

OBJECTIVE

Previous work indicates that African-American adolescents are at high risk for concurrent alcohol and cannabis use. The present study examines the associations of traditional ecological predictors of substance use with concurrent alcohol and cannabis use among African-American adolescents. It also examines whether racial identity, a culturally relevant factor, is associated with concurrent use beyond the influence of traditional factors.

METHOD

Secondary analyses were conducted based on a large survey of high school adolescents. Responses on self-report measures of substance use and psychosocial determinants of health were examined for those respondents in grades 9-12 who identified as African American (N = 465; 59.8% female).

RESULTS

Findings demonstrated that traditional risk and resilience factors, including externalizing symptoms and substance use beliefs, were related to alcohol and cannabis co-use relative to other patterns of use among African-American adolescents. Racial identity dimensions were also associated with alcohol and cannabis co-use beyond the influence of traditional factors. However, the direction of these associations varied by dimension.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings from the present study assist in advancing the current knowledge base by identifying potential risk and protective factors for alcohol and cannabis co-use among African-American youth, who face increasing rates of this substance use pattern. They also underscore the importance of accounting for cultural variability in models of adolescent substance use among this population. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Discrimination and Substance Use: Examining the Moderating Role of Impulsivity among Racial-Ethnic Minority Adolescents

BACKGROUND

Research on substance use among racial-ethnic minority populations notes that discrimination experiences predict substance use outcomes. Individual-level factors, such as impulsivity, are also known risk factors for substance use. However, little is known about the direct and interaction effects between discrimination experiences and impulsivity among racial-ethnic minority youth. The current study examines the effects of perceived experiences of discrimination on alcohol and marijuana use among racial-ethnic minority youth, and whether individual differences in impulsivity traits help to further understand potential risk for substance use.

METHODS

Participants were 112 racial-ethnic minority adolescents (Mage = 15.27; African American, Hispanic, Multiracial, Native American/Alaskan Native, or Other). Adolescents completed self-report measures of perceived experiences of discrimination, alcohol and marijuana use (past year occurrence and problematic use), and five impulsivity traits (i.e., sensation seeking, lack of planning, lack of perseverance, negative urgency, and positive urgency).

RESULTS

A significant main effect of perceived discrimination on problem marijuana use was found, as well as a significant main effect of lack of premeditation on current marijuana use. Several marginally significant main effects emerged for alcohol use and problem alcohol use (i.e., positive urgency and sensation seeking, respectively).

CONCLUSION

While no significant moderation effects emerged, marginal findings suggest a potential interactive effect of discrimination and impulsivity traits on problem alcohol and marijuana use among racial-ethnic minority youth. Further research is needed in this area to replicate findings, which is critical to informing effective intervention and prevention efforts for this population of youth.

Longitudinal relations between emotional awareness and expression, emotion regulation, and peer victimization among urban adolescents

INTRODUCTION

There are potential long-term psychosocial effects of experiencing peer victimization during adolescence, including: internalizing symptoms, externalizing behaviors, and risks behaviors such as substance use. While social-emotional theories of development note associations between deficits in emotion competencies and peer victimization in childhood, these associations are less established among adolescent samples. Identifying which inadequacies in emotional competence place particular adolescents at risk for peer victimization may provide insight into the developmental pathways leading to unfavorable outcomes.

METHODS

The current study examined the relation between emotional competence and overt peer victimization among adolescents. Adolescents living in a mid-sized urban city in the southeastern region of the United States (N = 357; Mage = 12.14 years, 92% African American) reported their emotional awareness and reluctance to express emotion at baseline. Two years later, adolescents reported their regulation of anger and caregivers reported on adolescents' global emotion regulation. Adolescents also reported on occurrences of overt peer victimization during the previous 30 days at baseline and during the two-year follow up.

RESULTS

Our hypothesized model fit the data adequately. Greater emotion awareness was associated with higher scores on caregiver-rated emotion regulation and adolescent-rated anger regulation two years later, and in turn, lower frequencies of overt victimization by peers. Further, greater expressive reluctance was associated with greater anger regulation, and in turn, lower frequencies of overt victimization by peers. Patterns of associations did not vary by sex or age.

CONCLUSIONS

The present study extends models of social-emotional development and peer interactions into the development age stage of adolescence.

2-Amino- and 2-guanidino-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-1,4-epoxynaphthalenes as conformationally defined analogues of alpha-adrenergic agents

The exo- and endo-2-amino-5,8-dimethoxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-1,4-epoxynaphthalenes++ + (3b and 4b, respectively) were prepared and evaluated as conformationally defined analogues of the alpha 1-agonist methoxamine. Only compound 3b exhibited significant alpha 1-agonist activity in the field stimulated rat vas deferens assay. Since 3b closely approximates the antiperiplanar form of (1R,2S)-(-)-erythro-methoxamine, the results suggest that methoxamine interacts with the alpha 1-adrenoceptor in the trans extended form. The exo-guanidino derivative 5 was found to be a partial alpha 1-agonist. Among the exo- and endo-2-amino-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-1,4-epoxynaphthalenes (3a and 4a, respectively) prepared as rigid analogues of norephedrine, compound 3a possessed agonist activity at both alpha 1- and alpha 2-adrenoceptors, whereas 4a was inactive at either receptor.

Design and synthesis of 2-(arylamino)-4(3H)-quinazolinones as novel inhibitors of rat lens aldose reductase

A number of 2-(arylamino)-4(3H)-quinazolinones (2a-i) that possess several of the pharmacophore moieties necessary for binding to the inhibitor site of the enzyme aldose reductase were synthesized and tested for their ability to inhibit crude aldose reductase obtained from rat lens. Only those quinazolinones that possess an acidic moiety on the 2-(arylamino) substituent were found to display significant inhibitory activity. Of these, the most potent compound is the 4'-CO2H derivative (2i) with an IC50 of 34 microM, while the least potent is the 4'-OH derivative (2c) with an IC50 of 75 microM. All of the 2-(arylamino)-4(3H)-quinazolinones tested are less potent than other known inhibitors of aldose reductase, such as alrestatin and sorbinil, indicating that the pharmacophore moieties present in these compounds may not be positioned optimally relative to one another for maximal interaction with the enzyme.

2-(beta-Arylethylamino)- and 4-(beta-arylethylamino)quinazolines as phosphodiesterase inhibitors

The existence of several forms of cAMP phosphodiesterase having differing kinetic characteristics suggests the feasibility of developing tissue-selective inhibitors of this enzyme. This observation is of particular importance in the development of therapeutic agents for the management of reversible obstructive airways disorders. The present report describes the design, synthesis and pharmacological characterization of a series of 6,7-dimethoxyquinazoline derivatives having beta-arylethylamine substituents at the 2- or 4-positions. The quinazoline nucleus is intended to confer a high degree of inhibitory activity for phosphodiesterase while the beta-aryethylamine moieties are designed to provide selectivity for adrenergically innervated tissue. The target compounds of this study, 6 and 7, were prepared via beta-arylethylamine displacement of chloride from an appropriate chloroquinazoline intermediate. The resulting products were evaluated for their ability to relax guinea pig tracheal smooth muscle and as inhibitors of phosphodiesterase.

4-Anilidopiperidine analgesics. 3. 1-Substituted 4-(propananilido)perhydroazepines as ring-expanded analogues

A study of ring-expanded analogues of the 4-(propananilido)piperidine analgesics has been undertaken in order to evaluate the influence of this structural modification on both analgesic activity and physical-dependence capacity. Thus, a series of 1-substituted 4-(propananilido)perhydroazepine derivatives was synthesized and pharmacologically evaluated in mice for analgesic activity and physical-dependence capacity. The results of this study indicate that the ring-expanded analogues of the 4-(propananilido)piperidines retain a relatively high degree of analgesic potency, except in the case of the 1-phenylethylated analogue which is approximately 150-fold less potent than the correspondingly 1-substituted piperidine analgesic. Evaluation of physical-dependence capacity of the most potent 1-substituted 4-(propananilido)perhydroazepines reveals no significant difference for these compounds as compared with morphine. The 4-(propananilido)perhydroazepines having 1-substitutents in common with known opiate antagonists failed to exhibit antagonism of morphine analgesia.

Estimation of high pressure liquid chromatographic retention indices of narcotic analgetics and related drugs

A method for the prediction of the retention index of drugs on C18 reversed-phase columns was developed and then applied to a series of drugs that were structurally related to morphine and to a series related to fentanyl. The HPLC retention index (/) of the test compounds was estimated using the equation: / = 200 pi + /ref. where pi was the sum of the Hansch substituent constants for the compound, and /ref. was the index experimentally observed for the reference compound of the series. It was also found that the observed index could be used to assign the stereochemistry of the fentanyl analogues.

4-Anilidopiperidine analgesics. 2. A study of the conformational aspects of the analgesic activity of the 4-anilidopiperidines utilizing isomeric N-substituted 3-(propananilido)nortropane analogues

Relatively little information is available concerning the influence of conformational factors on the potent analgesic actions of the 4-anilidopiperidines. A series of N-substituted 3 alpha- and 3 beta-(propananilido)nortropanes have been designed, synthesized, and stereochemically characterized as semirigid analogues of the 4-anilidopiperidine analgesics in an attempt to study the influence of certain stereochemical factors on analgesia in this class of compounds. Conformational analysis of 3 alpha-propananilides (4) reveals a boat conformation for the preferred conformation of the piperidine ring of these tropane analogues. Evaluation of the analgesic potencies of the isomeric N-substituted 3-(propananilido)nortropanes of this study indicates greater potency for the 3 beta-(propananilido) isomers (5) with N-benzyl and N-phenethyl substitution as compared to the corresponding N-substituted 3 alpha-propananilides. Analysis of relative solubility differences among these isomers suggests that both structural and stereochemical influences predominate in affecting analgesic potency.

3-Aryl- and 3-hydroxy-3-aryloctahydropyrido[2,1-c][1,4]oxazines. Synthesis, stereochemistry, and central nervous system pharmacological actions

A series of substituted 3-aryl- and hydroxy-3-aryloctahydropyrido[2,1-c][1,4]oxazines has been synthesized for purposes of investigating potentially useful CNS pharmacological actions of this novel heterocyclic system. The preferred conformation of the bicyclic system of the parent compounds, 1 and 2, has been shown to be trans with equatorial orientation of the 3-phenyl substituent in each compound. The various substituted aryl analogues of this series are depressants of motor activity in mice, and certain analogues exhibit significant anticonvulsant and appetite suppressant activity in test animals.

Synthesis and alpha-adrenolytic activity of chiral beta-haloethylamines

Several series of N,N-diaralkyl- and N-aryloxyalkyl-N-aralkyl-beta-haloethylamines were synthesized containing centers of chirality in the aralkyl substituent and in the beta-haloethyl moiety to study the stereoselectivity of alpha-adrenolytic activity of the beta-haloethylamines. These compounds were synthesized from starting materials of known absolute configuration via synthetic schemes that did not alter the stereochemical integrity of the chiral centers. Evaluation of the alpha-adrenolytic activities of these beta-haloethylamines on rat vas deferens indicated a variable degree of stereoselectivity of adrenergic blockade, which is interpreted in terms of drug-receptor interactions.

Synthesis and pharmacological evaluation of some 3-substituted octahydropyrido(2,1-c)(1,4)oxazines

3-Phenyloctahydropyrido[2,1-c][1,4]oxazine hydrochloride and the 10R and 10S diastereomers have been synthesized from (+/-)-, (+)-, and (-)-2-piperidinemethanol. Treatment of 2-piperidinemethanol with alpha-bromoacetophenone gave 3-hydroxy-3-phenyloctahydropyrido[2,1-c][1,4]oxazine which was readily converted to the 3-phenyl derivative by catalytic hydrogenolysis. These compounds were shown to possess a depressant action on the CNS which was quantitated in terms of reduction of locomotor activity in mice. Qualitative differences were noted in the central effects of the 3-phenyl compound and its hemiketal derivative. Further, qualitative differences in the effects of the diastereomers of the 3-phenyl compound on locomotor activity of mice were also noted. The results of this study suggest that the octahydropyrido[2,1-c]1,4]oxazine system may provide a useful molecular framework for the construction of agents exhibiting pharmacologically useful actions in the CNS.