Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Jul 14, 2025
Open Peer Review Period: Aug 15, 2025 - Oct 10, 2025
Date Accepted: Dec 10, 2025
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Online racism, digital mental health tools, and online mental health communication among Black young adults with and without depression or anxiety
ABSTRACT
Background:
Use of technological resources that provide support for mental health (ie, digital mental health tools) and opportunities to use the internet to communicate with others or receive information about mental health (ie, online mental health communication) are growing in popularity among young adults (ages 18-29). Black young adults are exposed to the negative experience of racism online, which may influence their use of digital mental health tools and online mental health communication.
Objective:
This study sought to examine (1) how the frequency of exposure to online racism is associated with use of digital mental health tools and engagement in online mental health communication, and (2) how these associations differ for those with either anxiety and depression versus those without.
Methods:
Conducted from July to September 2024, data came from a larger cross-sectional study of 1005 monoracial Black young adults (N = 1005; Mage = 24.07, SDage = 3.04, 50.6% women) who completed an online survey. Self-report measures of exposure to online racism, use of digital mental health tools, frequency of engaging in online mental health communication, and anxiety and depressive symptoms were assessed.
Results:
Our results showed that more frequent exposure to online racism was associated with a greater likelihood of using digital mental health tools (ORs range 1.72-1.84, p <.001) and a greater engagement in online mental health communication (???? range = .31 - .36, p <.001). Neither anxiety nor depression were significant moderators.
Conclusions:
Digital mental health tools, online mental health communication, and exposure to online racism are linked for Black young adults. Complementary digital intervention implementation strategies of supporting mental health while mitigating online racism are needed for this population. Black young adults may use digital mental health tools and mental health communication online when they experience online racism or may experience online racism when they use these tools and engage. Keeping Black young adults well and eliminating online racism are mutually reinforcing priorities for digital interventions.
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.