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The current study tested direct and indirect associations between racial discrimination and civic engagement via emotion regulation strategies. Differences between males and females were also explored. Method: African American college students (76% female; M age ϭ 18.42) participating in a university-wide research study provided self-reports of their racial discrimination experiences, use of emotion regulation strategies, and civic engagement attitudes and beliefs. Results: Greater racial discrimination was associated with less use of reappraisal (i.e., thinking about emotions in a different way) and, in turn, use of reappraisal was associated with greater civic engagement attitudes. The same association was found for civic engagement behaviors. However, reappraisal was associated with greater civic engagement behaviors for females and less civic engagement behaviors for males. Conclusion: The current study highlights the need to consider the role of cognitive emotion regulation strategies on college students' sociopolitical development and civic engagement. Public Significance StatementThe effects of racial discrimination on civic engagement suggests that African American emerging adults process racialized experiences in different ways. Use of reappraisal as an emotion regulation strategy appears to be a contributing and effective means of processing racial discrimination experiences.

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Prior studies have demonstrated that sexual minority college students are two to four times more likely to experience sexual victimization (e.g., sexual assault and/or unwanted or uncomfortable sexual experiences) compared to their heterosexual counterparts. However, research that has focused on the detrimental effects of sexual victimization on health outcomes has paid more attention to heterosexual college samples and community-based adults. Understanding how sexual victimization influences mental health and substance use outcomes among lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and asexual (LGBQA) emerging adults in college is warranted given that this developmental period represents a critical risk period for trauma exposure, risk behavior, and psychological distress. Thus, the current study tested how sexual victimization was associated with depressive symptoms, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and alcohol use disorder (AUD) symptoms among 234 diverse college students who self-identified as LGBQA. Additionally, social support was tested as a moderator. Findings indicated that sexual victimization was related to greater depressive symptoms, PTSD symptoms, and AUD symptoms. In addition, perceived social support moderated the relation between sexual victimization and depressive symptoms, however, in a direction contrary to hypotheses. In particular, higher sexual victimization was associated with greater depressive symptoms among LGBQA students with higher levels of social support ( b = .29, p = .00), and was not significant among LGBQA students with lower levels of social support ( b = .13, p = .26). The current study highlights the need to consider the detrimental effects of sexual victimization on health outcomes among LGBQA college students, as well as the mechanisms through which social support may be influencing these relations.

The purpose of the current study was to test the role that components of ethnic identity (i.e., exploration and resolution) play in academic achievement, and to examine mental health, racial discrimination, and gender as moderators of these associations among Black college students. Participants included 341 college students who identified as a Black/African American female or male ( M age = 18.4; SD = .34), and completed measures of ethnic identity, perceived racial discrimination, and mental health. Results indicated that higher levels of ethnic identity exploration were associated with a lower grade point average (GPA) among males with higher levels of depressive symptoms, but not among males with lower levels of depressive symptoms. Similarly, higher levels of ethnic identity resolution were associated with a lower GPA among males with higher levels of anxiety symptoms, but not males with lower levels of anxiety symptoms. Findings may have implications for clinical and educational interventions by highlighting the nuanced ways that ethnic identity, mental health, and gender affect Black college students’ academic achievement.