Negative emotional reactivity to racial/ethnic stress among Black adults who smoke

Black/African American (hereafter, Black) adults who smoke are at risk for tobacco-related health disparities in the United States (US). Although racial-based stressors (e.g., discrimination) are associated with smoking among this group, past work has not characterized individual differences in negative emotional reactivity to racial/ethnic stress in terms of smoking. The present investigation sought to address this limitation and evaluate the incremental validity of negative emotional reactivity to racial/ethnic stress on smoking processes after accounting for clinically important covariates. Participants included 517 Black individuals from the US who endorsed daily cigarette smoking (≥5 cigarettes per day, M_age = 45.1 years of age, 51.5% female). Results indicated that negative emotional reactivity to racial/ethnic minority stress was associated with an increased risk of severity of problems when quitting (ΔR² = .01), perceived barriers for smoking cessation (ΔR² = .03), and addictive (ΔR² = .03) as well as negative mood reduction smoking motives (ΔR² = .04); with effects evident after adjusting for frequency of racial/ethnic discrimination and other factors (e.g., drug use problems). Overall, the present findings provide novel empirical evidence that negative emotional reactivity to racial/ethnic minority stress among Black adults in the US is associated with several smoking processes implicated in the maintenance and relapse of smoking.