Depression, Substance Use, and Social-Cultural Behaviors of African American men: Are we missing signals for help?

• Leon D. Caldwell, Ph.D.^{a, ,} ,
• Bryant T. Marks, Ph.D.^b

• ^a Rhodes College, Memphis, TN, USA
• ^b Morehouse College, Atlanta, GA, USA

Available online 13 October 2010

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jomh.2010.09.174, How to Cite or Link Using DOI

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Background: The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between depression, substance use, and cultural social practices of African American college age men.

Methods: A 20-minute, computer based survey was administered to 420 African American male college students (183 freshmen, 79 sophomores, 77 juniors, and 81 seniors; mean age 19.73) attending a predominantly African American institution located in the southeastern United States. Although the survey measured many variables, the current research focuses on 1) depression, 2) endorsement of risky behaviors (i.e., appropriateness of college student to using drugs, drinking alcohol, having multiple sexual partners within the same period of time), and 3) engaging in negative, stereotypical, African American male behavior (i.e., wearing a baseball cap to class, and wearing a du-rag head covering in public).

Results: Correlational analyses revealed that participants with higher levels of depression were more likely to a) endorse the use of hard drugs (e.g., cocaine, heroin), r = .42, p < .001, and marijuana, r = .15, p < .01, b) have multiple sexual partners, r = .15, p < .02, c) wear a cap to class, r = .17, p < .001 and d) wear a du-rag in public, r = .27, p < .001. Depression was not related to believing it was appropriate for college students to drink alcohol.

Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that risky health behaviors and social–cultural practices may be indicators of more serious emotional distress not simply counter cultural behaviors. African American males in depressive emotional states may be self-medicating with hard drugs and engaging in risky-sexual behavior as a coping mechanism. These findings are particularly important because the sample under investigation represent African American males enrolled in prestigious colleges in the United States. One would assume that this sub-population of African American males would have access to resources to relieve their emotional distress. These finding have implications for mental health treatments with African American males by interpreting their social cultural practice not as “deviant” and counter culture (i.e., wearing a du-rag) but as indicators of emotional distress.