Abstract
Everyday experiences of racial discrimination are associated with negative mental health outcomes, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and alcohol misuse among ethnoracially minoritized adults. Less is known, however, about potential pathways in the association between racial discrimination and alcohol misuse. This study examines PTSD symptoms as a potential pathway in the association between everyday racial discrimination (ERD) and past 12-month binge drinking among ethnoracially minoritized emerging adults. Participants were emerging adults (N = 271), aged 18-29 years (M = 24.2, SD = 3.07), who identified being from an ethnoracially minoritized group. They were recruited from crowdsourced online data collection tools (i.e., CloudResearch, MTurk) to complete online surveys on ERD, PTSD symptoms, and alcohol use. A parallel mediation model tested the direct and indirect effects of ERD on binge drinking through three PTSD symptom domains (i.e., avoidance, intrusion, and hyperarousal). Findings revealed a significant indirect effect of ERD on binge drinking via hyperarousal PTSD symptoms (β = 0.11, SE = 0.006, 95% CI [-0.00, 0.03], p = .05), indicating a partial mediation. The indirect effect via intrusion and avoidance symptoms was not statistically significant, indicating no mediative effects. Results highlight the need for future studies to delineate the explanatory pathways between racial discrimination and alcohol misuse. This research will help improve the cultural responsiveness of prevention and intervention strategies for alcohol misuse among ethnoracially minoritized emerging adults. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).