Multiracial Discrimination Scale: Development and Psychometric Validation of its Associations with Alcohol Use and Misuse among Multiracial Young Adults

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Summary/Abstract Young adulthood is a developmental epoch for alcohol misuse (defined as a pattern of drinking that increases risks for adverse health outcomes). Multiracial (defined as having biological parents of two or more racial/ethnic groups) young adults may be differentially vulnerable to alcohol misuse as they report both the highest prevalence of past-year alcohol consumption and alcohol use disorder compared to other racial/ethnic young adults. Multiracial discrimination is a racially relevant stressor for Multiracial young adults and may be associated with alcohol-related disparities, as consistent with minority stress and tension reduction frameworks, as well as robust support for the discrimination-alcohol misuse association in monoracial young adults. However, our knowledge of Multiracial discrimination is fragmented and compounded by measurement concerns. Notably, general discrimination scales are commonly used to assess Multiracial discrimination despite research demonstrating general discrimination and Multiracial discrimination as distinct constructs. Further, existing Multiracial discrimination scales lack specificity with the source of the discriminatory treatment even though discriminatory messages vary by perpetrators and may be differentially associated with health (including alcohol) outcomes. In the absence of a scale capturing the lived experience of Multiracial discrimination among Multiracial people, alcohol researchers cannot resolve whether Multiracial discrimination is a sociocultural determinant of alcohol misuse and contributing to alcohol-related disparities among Multiracial young adults, who are driving substantial demographic change in the United States. Thus, using a sequential mixed methods approach, the proposed project aims to (a) explore and generate a nuanced view of Multiracial discrimination using thematic analysis from Multiracial young adult focus groups, (b) develop and (c) psychometrically validate the Multiracial Discrimination Scale using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, and (d) assess concurrent associations between Multiracial discrimination with alcohol misuse using structural equational modeling. Findings of this project will provide alcohol researchers with a psychometrically sound scale to characterize the scope and magnitude of the Multiracial discrimination-alcohol misuse pathway, to potentially highlight an intervention point preceding alcohol misuse, and thus informing the culturally sensitive design of evidence-based interventions implemented to reduce and prevent alcohol misuse among Multiracial young adults. This NRSA Individual Predoctoral Fellowship to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research would provide specialized training in mixed methodologies (e.g., connecting qualitative/quantitative data), psychometric statistics (e.g., test theory), and investigating latent constructs (e.g., structural equation modeling), thus providing instrumental support for my developing research program, and laying out a path for a long, prolific, NIH-funded alcohol research career.