Alcohol use severity among Hispanic college students: examining social media discrimination, drinking motives, and resilience in a stress and coping framework

<i>Background:</i> Exposure to <i>racial and ethnic discrimination</i> (RED) is positively associated with alcohol-related outcomes among Hispanics; however, links between RED and alcohol use are poorly understood, particularly when considering RED in social media.<i>Objectives:</i> Study aimed to (1) examine the direct and indirect associations between RED on social media and alcohol use severity (i.e., AUDIT total score) via coping drinking motives (a form of negative reinforcement in which an individual uses alcohol to alleviate/regulate negative emotions) among Hispanic emerging adult college students, and (2) examine if psychological resilience moderates the direct and indirect associations of social media discrimination on alcohol use severity.<i>Methods:</i> A convenience sample of 423 (women = 300, men = 123) Hispanic college students from Texas and Florida completed a cross-sectional online survey. Data were analyzed by conducting a conditional process analysis.<i>Results:</i> Social media discrimination did not have a direct association with alcohol use severity (β = .05, 95% CI=[-.03, .13], <i>p</i> > .05), but it did have a statistically significant indirect association with alcohol use severity via coping drinking motives (β = .08, 95% CI = [.03, .13], <i>p</i> < .05). Further, psychological resilience functioned as a moderator that weakened the indirect association between social media discrimination and alcohol use severity (β = -.14, 95% CI=[-.23, -.05], <i>p</i> < .001).<i>Conclusions:</i> Our conditional process analysis may help guide etiological studies on RED and alcohol use. The data suggest that psychological resilience and coping drinking motives may be relevant constructs for interventions that aim to mitigate the association between RED and alcohol use.