# Racism-Based Trauma, Emerging Adults, and Substance Abuse

> **NIH NIH F31** · WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $30,477

## Abstract

Abstract
Community violence exposure (CVE) among Black emerging adults ages 18-29 in the United States is a major
public health concern given its prevalence and association with substance use. However, the nature of
the relationship between CVE and substance use when the perpetrator(s) of the violence has an entrusted
professional role to serve, enhance, or safe guard the welfare of the citizens they serve (e.g., police officers,
doctors, teachers, etc.) and the violence (e.g., homicide and other types of serious physical harm) is
experienced as a racism-based traumatic event (sudden, out of one’s control, emotionally painful, prejudicial,
and discriminatory) is unknown. Exposure to police use of force in America is one type of CVE that has
attracted national attention. Nationally, Black emerging adults are three to four times more likely to
experience exposure to police threat or use of force and two to three times more likely to be unarmed and
killed in comparison to their white counterparts. Prior research suggests that this type of CVE may be
experienced as a racism-based traumatic event. The Classes of Racism Frequency of Racial Experiences
(CRFRE) measure was developed to assess individuals’ exposure to perceived racism-based events.
However, the CRFRE hostile-racism scale does not capture exposure to perceived racism-based police use of
force events or the range of police use of force events that are most salient for a population. In addition, the
nature of the relationship between exposure to racism-based police use of force, racism-based trauma
symptoms, and substance use is unknown. Therefore, the proposed study will 1) Identify key survey items to
add to the CRFRE hostile-racism scale that capture exposure to racism-based police use of force among a
sample of Black emerging adults receiving services from Fathers’ Support Center or St. Louis County Justice
Services in Saint Louis, Missouri, or enrolled in St. Louis Community College 2) Conduct a pilot study to test
the psychometric properties of the revised CRFRE scale, and 3) Test the potential mediating effect of racism-
based trauma symptoms on the relationship between exposure to racism-based police use of force and
substance use. Findings from the study will advance our methodology for quantifying exposure to racism-
based police use of force and elucidate specific pathways to substance use for Black emerging adults.
Additionally, the applicant’s proposed training plan will allow him to: 1) advance his substantive and
measurement knowledge regarding exposure to racism-based police use of force, racism-based trauma
symptoms, and substance use; 2) enhance his knowledge and skills in psychometric analysis; and 3) increase
his skills for effective dissemination of research findings. The proposed research and training plans will help
prepare the applicant for a career as an independent racism-based trauma and substance use scholar focused
on advancing knowledge of prevalence and populat...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9987305
- **Project number:** 5F31MD013386-02
- **Recipient organization:** WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Robert O Motley
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $30,477
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-05-08 → 2021-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9987305

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9987305, Racism-Based Trauma, Emerging Adults, and Substance Abuse (5F31MD013386-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9987305. Licensed CC0.

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