Drug use and stress: Testing a coping model in an urban African-American sample

Opposing functions have been attributed to substance use — as causal of distress and as buffering agent to reduce distress. These opposing roles were modeled with longitudinal data from an urban community sample of African Americans. With enduring unemployment formulated as the predictor stressor, three levels of drug use were tested for direct versus multiplicative effects on strain. Findings did not support the buffering or stress-relief hypothesis. Further, strongly gender-differentiated processes appeared in the unemployment-drug-distress relationship. For men, unemployment strain was increased under the condition of moderate to heavy drug use (i.e., an interactive or multiplicative relationship). For women, moderate to heavy drug use increased strain independently of unemployment (additive effect). But light (less than weekly) use exacerbated strain for women under the condition of regular employment although showing no effect for women when unemployed.