Music as a mediator between ethnicity and substance use among college students

The current study examined the relationship between substance use references contained in music lyrics and videos and the attitudes and behaviors regarding substance use of White non-Hispanic, African American, and Hispanic emerging adults from a cultivation and social norms framework by assessing 425 male and female college students. It was hypothesized that there would be ethnic variations in perceived harm from substance use and reported recent substance use and that exposure to substance use references contained in music could mediate this relationship. Results confirmed ethnic differences in perceived risk associated with substance use as well as reported substance use with White non-Hispanic college students reporting the least perceived risk and the most substance use. African American college students reported the most perceived risk associated with substance use and the least amount of reported substance use. Results of the Test of Joint Significance confirmed the mediational model in that participant ethnicity was associated with exposure to substance use references in music lyrics and music videos. Substance use references in music lyrics, then, was able to predict actual reported substance use of participants but not perceived risk associated with substance use.