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

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.