Arab American Identity and Ethnic Name Bias

Despite being included in the majority racial group, Arabs still experience discrimination in America. One form of discrimination experienced by Arab Americans from employers is ethnic name discrimination. However, little research has examined Arab identity and whether Arab Americans display ethnic name biases similar to those of White adults. Therefore, this study aims to test whether Arab Americans show biases regarding ethnic names similar to those shown by White Americans, and to test relationships between ethnic identity and ethnic-name bias. In the current study, 133 Arabs and 247 Whites rated how successful they believed 11 students would be based solely on their high school resumes. Participants rated sets of resumes that included two pairs of resumes that were identical except for the name, with two resumes bearing Anglo-American names and the other two bearing Arabic names. Participants also completed measures of ethnic identity. Neither Whites nor Arabs rated the identical resumes differently. However, Arab women rated one resume with an Arabic name significantly more positively than its Anglo-American counterpart. Additionally, rater bias was positively correlated with how closely women identified with being Arab, and was negatively correlated with how closely women believed Arabs were perceived in society. This finding suggests that ethnic identity may be related to the development of implicit intergroup bias.Bachelor of Scienc

Age-Varying Association Between Discrimination, Childhood Family Support, and Substance Use Disorders Among Latin American Immigrants in the United States

ObjectivesThe cultural stress theory posits that immigrants experience a constellation of cultural stressors such as discrimination that could exacerbate alcohol- and other substance-related problems. Drawing on cultural stress theory, this study investigated the age-varying association between past-year discrimination and substance use disorders (SUDs) among Latin American immigrants aged 18-60 and whether childhood family support moderated the above association.MethodWe used data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions-III (NESARC-III) among adults aged 18-60 who identified as a Latin American immigrant (N = 3,049; 48% female).ResultsTime-varying effect models (TVEMs) revealed that experiencing past-year discrimination was associated with greater odds of having a SUD during young and middle adulthood for Latin American immigrants. Furthermore, for immigrants with lower childhood family support, discrimination was associated with SUD risk in young and middle adulthood.ConclusionThe present study documents that past-year discrimination was linked to greater SUD risk during young and middle adulthood. Childhood family support may serve as a protective factor in the association between discrimination and risk for SUD among Latin American immigrants. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)

Substance Use and Psychological and Physiological Responses to Stress

Substance use rapidly increases during adolescence, particularly among youth who experience greater stress and negative emotion. However, limited research has examined whether responses to stress may predict adolescent substance use. Associations between adolescents’ responses to acute and daily responses to stress and substance use were tested. Adolescents in the CHAMACOS study completed a social-evaluative stress paradigm at age 14, in which they provided four samples of salivary cortisol, six emotion ratings, and electrocardiogram and impedance cardiogram consistently, and reported whether they had ever used any substances at ages 14 and 16. A community sample of adolescents also reported substance use and completed two weeks of daily reports of emotion and interpersonal conflict, up to three times for every two years, during the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Results indicated that blunted HPA axis responses to stress were related to use of alcohol by age 14, primarily driven by elevated cortisol at baseline, and vaping of nicotine by age 16 among adolescents above the poverty line. Also, female adolescents with blunted sadness reactivity to stress reported greater use of varied substances, and female adolescents with blunted happiness reactivity reported initiation of substances between ages 14 and 16 (Study 1). Blunted changes in sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activity, particularly profiles of coinhibition and reciprocal parasympathetic activation, were related to initiation of substance use among non-users (Study 2). Finally, blunted positive emotion reactivity was related to greater substance use among adolescents irrespective of gender, whereas greater anxious emotion reactivity among female adolescents and blunted depressive emotion reactivity among male adolescents were both related to greater substance use. These results consistently suggest that blunted responses to stress are related to greater substance use across psychological and physiological systems

Subjective social status and stress responsivity in late adolescence

This project assessed whether subjective social status relates to stress responses in the Trier Social Stress Task in late adolescence

Providing Daily Emotional Support during COVID-19

This project assessed the effects of providing emotional support to friends and family on emotional well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic between April and June 2021 among a sample of undergraduate students

Affect variability in relation to alcohol use frequency, intensity, and concurrent cannabis use among college students during the COVID-19 pandemic

These analyses tested whether affect variability was related to the frequency and intensity of alcohol use and concurrent cannabis use in a sample college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Models indicated that higher levels of positive and negative affect variability were generally associated with higher odds of using alcohol and concurrently using alcohol and cannabis, as well as higher frequency and intensity of drinking among users. Associations between affect variability and the frequency and intensity of drinking did not differ between users and non-users. We provide the unblinded manuscript, the figures, and the supplement including supplemental tables and figures, all syntax in Stata 16.1, and all study questions and materials used in analyses