Church Attendance or Religiousness: Their Relationship to Adolescents' Use of Alcohol, Other Drugs, and Delinquency

• NCJ Number: 215675
• Journal: Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly Volume: 24 Issue: 1/2 Dated: 2006 Pages: 75-87
• Author(s): Brent B. Benda Ph.D.; Sandra K. Pope Ph.D.; Kelly J. Kelleher M.D.
• Date Published: 2006
• Length: 13 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Using a stratified random sample of 3,551 adolescents, (grades seven through nine) from 66 public high schools in a southern State, this study determined whether "religiousness," instead of church attendance, was related to the level of alcohol consumption, other drug use, and delinquency, after considering sociodemographic, familial, and peer factors.

Abstract

Overall, the findings show that personal and family religiousness, the importance of religion, and belief in God were more direct measures of convictions and beliefs that likely influence adolescent behavior than attending church. Although church is the institution where most individuals and families acquire religiousness, the behavior of attending church is not a good indicator of an individual's commitment to religious beliefs and its behavioral values. This study found that "religiousness," defined as holding beliefs about God and moral values related to those beliefs, was significantly related to adolescents' use of alcohol, other drugs, and delinquency; whereas, church attendance had a modest link to these behaviors. A measure of the importance of religion and belief in God, but not church attendance, was inversely related to alcohol consumption, drug use, and delinquency. Religiousness was more important for the behavior of girls than boys. The dependent variables were alcohol use over the past 6 months; other drug use in the past month (marijuana; uppers, downers, tranquilizers; crack/cocaine; LSD; anabolic steroids; and heroin); and specified delinquent behaviors in the past 6 months. The latter involved fighting, shoplifting, vandalism, theft, staying away from home all night without permission, and skipping school without permission. The independent variables were church attendance, religiousness, family relations, commitment to educational goals, future expectations, and friends' alcohol consumption. 2 tables and 33 references