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For many Black emerging adult men in the United States, social‐structural stressors rooted in racial discrimination are daily experiences that place them at greater risk for poor health. Emerging adulthood is a critical life course period marked by greater experimentation with health risk behaviors. Although Black men's health vulnerabilities during this period are connected to their social‐structural environments, investigations of these factors among noncollege sampled Black men remain limited. We conduced thirty semi‐structured in‐depth interviews to examine associations between social‐structural challenges and social‐structural resources for resiliency. Interviews were audio‐recorded, transcribed verbatim, and coded using Dedoose web‐based qualitative software. Through open coding, emergent concepts were connected across interviews and major themes were identified. We found three core social‐structural stressors: (1) Racial profiling, (2) neighborhood violence, and (3) lack of economic opportunities, and three resilience factors: (1) Positive social networks, (2) community‐based resources, and (3) safe environments that foster a sense of community. Collectively, these findings provide insight into developing structural‐ and community‐level interventions tailored to bolster resiliency across multiple levels and counteract the social‐structural challenges that young Black men face.

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Objectives. To use activity space assessments to investigate neighborhood exposures that may heighten young Black men’s vulnerability to substance use and misuse. Methods. We surveyed young Black men in New Haven, Connecticut in 2019 on the locations (activity spaces) they traveled to in a typical week and their experiences of racism and any alcohol and cannabis use at each location. Results. A total of 112 young Black men (mean age = 23.57 years; SD = 3.20) identified 583 activity spaces. There was significant overlap between racism-related events and substance use (alcohol and cannabis use) at specific locations. Areas with a higher prevalence of violent crime also had a greater frequency of racism-related events and substance use. Conclusions. An activity space approach is a promising method for integrating objective and subjective experiences within neighborhood contexts to better understand the frequency and co-occurrence of racism-related stress and substance use among young Black men. (Am J Public Health. 2023;113(S2):S136–S139. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2023.307254 )