Religiosity and Exposure to Users in Explaining Illicit Drug Use among Emerging Adults

Religiosity is a protective factor against illicit drug use, but further investigation is needed to delineate which components of religiosity are protective against use. A racially diverse sample (N = 962) was surveyed about religiosity, exposure to users, and recent use of marijuana, powder cocaine, ecstasy, and nonmedical use of opioids and amphetamine. Results suggest that identifying as Agnostic increased odds of use for each of the five drugs; however, this effect disappeared when controlling for religious importance and attendance. High levels of religious attendance were protective against recent use of marijuana and cocaine, but protective effects diminished when controlling for exposure to users, which was a robust predictor of use of every drug. Religion is a protective mechanism against drug use, but this effect may diminish in light of exposure to users. Alternative preventative methods need to be directed toward individuals who are not religious or are highly exposed to users.     

Religious Involvement and Its Association to Risk Behaviors among Older Youth in Foster Care

This study examined religious involvement and its association to risk behaviors (sexual behavior, marijuana use, alcohol use, and cigarette use) among older youth in foster care (N=383). Three dimensions of religious involvement were assessed—church or religious service attendance, religious practices, and religious beliefs. Findings showed that gender, ethnic group membership, sexual abuse history, and placement type were significantly associated with older foster care youth’s religious involvement. Hierarchical logistic regression analyses showed that religious service attendance was associated with reduced odds of youth’s engagement in sexual behavior in the past 2 months and current use of cigarettes. In addition, greater religious beliefs were associated with a reduction in odds of youth’s use of alcohol in the past 6 months and current use of cigarettes. The consideration of religious involvement as a positive influence and resource that may reduce unhealthy risk behaviors among older youth in foster care is discussed.     

Religiosity and Adolescent Substance Use in Central Mexico: Exploring the Influence of Internal and External Religiosity on Cigarette and Alcohol Use

This study explores the multidimensional nature of religiosity on substance use among adolescents living in central Mexico. From a social capital perspective, this article investigates how external church attendance and internal religious importance interact to create differential pathways for adolescents, and how these pathways exert both risk and protective influences on Mexican youth. The data come from 506 self-identified Roman Catholic youth (ages 14–17) living in a semi-rural area in the central state of Guanajuato, Mexico, and attending alternative secondary schools. Findings indicate that adolescents who have higher church attendance coupled with higher religious importance have lower odds of using alcohol, while cigarette use is lower among adolescents who have lower church attendance and lower religious importance. Adolescents are most at risk using alcohol and cigarettes when church attendance is higher but religious importance is lower. In conclusion, incongruence between internal religious beliefs and external church attendance places Mexican youth at greater risk of alcohol and cigarette use. This study not only contributes to understandings of the impact of religiosity on substance use in Mexico, but highlights the importance of understanding religiosity as a multidimensional phenomenon which can lead to differential substance use patterns.     

Suicidality Among Chronically Homeless People with Alcohol Problems Attenuates Following Exposure to Housing First

This study is the first to document suicidality among chronically homeless people with alcohol problems (N = 134) and examine its trajectory following exposure to immediate, permanent, low‐barrier housing (i.e., Housing First). Suicidal ideation, intent, plans, and prior attempts were assessed at baseline and during a 2‐year follow‐up. Baseline suicidal ideation was over four times higher than in the general population. Two‐year, within‐subjects, longitudinal analyses indicated severity of suicidal ideation decreased by 43% from baseline to follow‐up. Significant decreases were also found for intent and clinical significance of ideation. No participants died by suicide during the 2‐year follow‐up.     

Teenagers and illicit drug use—expanding the ‘user vs non-user’ dichotomy

The present study examines proximal and distal factors associated with the use and non-use of illegal substances within a sample of 860 teenagers in North Wales. Arguing that there is predictive utility in expanding the traditional ‘users vs non-users’ design dichotomy, four groups are identified — resistant and vulnerable non-users and experimental and repeated users. ‘Person’ variables (life satisfaction, deviance, hopelessness and drug-related attributions) appeared to primarily differentiate the vulnerable group from their resistant counterparts and identify this, as yet non-using group, with user samples. It is suggested that these variables might represent ‘risk’ factors for illicit substance use and that the group design employed suggests they precede, rather than follow as a consequence of, illicit drug use. Like their resistant counterparts however, the vulnerable group are differentiated from user samples on some lifestyle and context indices. It is argued that these represent ‘protective’ influences in an otherwise at-risk group of non-users. Variables associated with an escalation of illicit drug use are discussed in considering the differences between the experimental and repeated user groups. Apart from the more proximal factor of drug-related attributions, ‘person’ variables appeared less involved here. Repeated users did however, tend to use a greater number of drugs, have a greater proportion of friends who also used illegal substances and significantly fewer had a Welsh cultural identity.     

Effects of homophobic name‐calling and verbal sexual harassment on substance use among young adults

Verbal aggression victimization, such as homophobic name‐calling, has been linked to heavier substance use among young people, but little longitudinal research has examined how different types of victimization may affect substance use or whether certain psychosocial factors moderate these risks. In a diverse cohort (N = 2,663), latent transition analysis was used to model heterogeneity in victimization (age 19) and substance use (age 20). Four victimization (high victimization, homophobic name‐calling only, verbal sexual harassment only, and low victimization) and three substance use (poly‐substance use, alcohol, and cannabis only, low all) classes were identified. The high victimization and homophobic name‐calling only classes had the highest probabilities of transitioning into the poly‐substance use class, and the high victimization class had the highest probability of transitioning into the alcohol and cannabis only class. The probability of transitioning into the low all substance use class was highest in the low victimization class and lowest in the high victimization class. For the high victimization class, greater depressive symptoms increased the odds, and better peer relationship quality decreased the odds, of transitioning into the poly‐substance use and alcohol and cannabis only classes. For the homophobic name‐calling only class, greater depressive symptoms increased the odds of transitioning into the poly‐substance use class. Homophobic name‐calling, alone or in combination with verbal sexual harassment, is a risk factor for escalating substance use in young adulthood, especially among victims with depressive symptoms.     

Prevalence and correlates of substance use among school children in six African countries

An increasing trend of noncommunicable diseases is a worldwide phenomenon, also including the developing countries. Few studies focus on adolescents' substance use in relation to mental distress and protective factors in African countries. The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence and correlates (mental distress and protective factors) of substance use among school-going adolescents in six African countries. The sample included 20,765 students aged from 13 to 15 years from six African countries (Kenya, Namibia, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe), chosen by a two-stage cluster sample design to represent all students in grades 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 in each country. The measure used was part of the Global School-Based Health Survey (GSHS) questionnaire, including various domains of health behaviour. Results indicate a prevalence of 12.6% tobacco use (past month), 6.6% risky alcohol use (two or more per day for at least 20 days or more in the past month), and 10.5% of illicit drug use (three or more times ever) in school-going adolescents in six African countries. School truancy, loneliness, sleeping problems, sadness, suicidal ideation, suicide plans, and poverty were associated with substance use (tobacco, alcohol, illicit drugs), while school attendance and parental supervision and connectedness were protective factors for substance use, and peer support protective for tobacco use. It is concluded that tobacco use, risky drinking and illicit drug use were common, clustered together and were associated with school truancy, mental distress, and lack of parental and peer support among adolescent African school children. These findings stress the need for early and integrated prevention programmes.     

Religion and Gambling Among Young Adults in the United States: Moral Communities and the Deterrence Hypothesis

Despite voluminous research examining religion as an integrative force and a mechanism of social control, relatively few studies have examined the association between religion and proscribed or morally ambiguous behaviors beyond crime and drug use. The present exploratory study examines the role of religion, at both the individual and county levels, in predicting self‐reported gambling problems. Hierarchical linear models are employed to examine religion and self‐reported gambling problems using the restricted use data of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. A negative association between religious attendance and problem gambling (at the individual level) is strongest when church adherents per capita is relatively high (measured at the county level). However, when the number of conservative Protestants per capita is relatively high, religious attendance (measured at the individual level) is associated with an increased risk of gambling problems. These countervailing findings are interpreted as supportive of the bonding and bridging capital thesis.     

Religious Attendance and Happiness: Examining Gaps in the Current Literature—A Research Note

Two major gaps exist in research examining the positive association between religious attendance and happiness. First, scholars have argued that this association may be because of people's perceived relationship with God or the social cohesion one experiences with other parishioners, but scholars have not studied both pathways simultaneously. Using nationally representative cross‐sectional data (General Social Survey), I first examine the influence of one's perceived relationship with God and one's perceived social cohesion within the religious community on happiness. One's perceived relationship with God is more strongly associated with happiness than is social cohesion. Second, scholars overwhelmingly use religious attendance as the independent variable, with happiness as the dependent variable. Using two waves of data from a nationally representative panel study (National Survey of Families and Households), I then examine the relationship between religious attendance and happiness over time, finding that religious attendance has a greater effect on happiness than happiness has on religious attendance.     

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Schizophrenia in Patients with Mild to Moderate Substance Misuse Problems

Rates of substance misuse are high among patients with schizophrenia. Cognitive therapies have been developed separately for both problems but little is known about outcome for this group of dual diagnosed patients. Data from a major trial of cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis was therefore sub‐analysed to determine whether this therapy is effective in those with schizophrenia and mild to moderate substance misuse. During the original study patients received a brief cognitive behaviour therapy‐based intervention for schizophrenia delivered by trained and supervised nurses. The control group received care as usual. The outcome measures included: total psychopathology using the Comprehensive Psychopathological Rating Scale (CPRS) and Health of the Nation Outcome Scale (HoNOS), change in schizophrenic positive symptoms using Schizophrenia Change Scale (SCR), anxiety using the Brief Scale for Anxiety (BAS), depression using the Montgomery‐Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) and insight using the Assessment of Insight Scale, at baseline and end of therapy. In the original study, patients who received cognitive behaviour therapy showed improvement in overall symptomatology (p = 0.01), insight (p = 0.00) and depression (p = 0.00) compared with the control group. In the present sub‐analysis, no interaction was found between treatment group and presence or absence of substance misuse. There was a reduction in substance misuse after treatment in both the cognitive behaviour therapy and control groups but this did not differ between them. It appears that mild to moderate degrees of substance misuse did not change the outcome of cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis in this sub‐analysis.     

Community violence exposure,coping, and problematic alcohol and drug use among urban,female caregivers: A prospective study

Victimization is associated with substance use in women, but less is known about linkages between witnessing community violence and substance use, even though more women witness versus directly experience violence. Further, factors that contribute to or protect against women’s problematic substance use are less well understood. Urban female caregivers (N = 318; >92% African American/black) living in low-income communities were interviewed annually for three waves regarding exposure to community violence, coping behaviors, substance use, and protective factors. Path analyses revealed that lifetime witnessing of violence, but not victimization, assessed at baseline, was associated with changes in avoidant coping, but not active coping, one year later; avoidant coping, in turn, was related to changes in and higher levels of problematic drug use the following year. Victimization was directly related to problematic drug use, but not to alcohol use. Regression analyses indicated that high levels of religious commitment and social support at baseline were prospectively associated with lower levels of avoidant coping. Because caregivers are important role models for their children, it is important to attend to the factors that contribute to their substance use and abuse.     

Does Duration of Deregulated Religious Markets Affect Church Attendance? Evidence from 26 Religious Markets in Europe and North America Between 1981 and 2006

This study tests the deregulation hypothesis of religious market theory in 26 European and Northern American countries by examining differences in religious involvement between and within countries. The deregulation hypothesis, which is assumed to be universally valid, predicts that religious involvement is higher in deregulated religious markets. Moreover, countries having deregulated religious markets for a longer period of time are supposed to have higher levels of involvement. Therefore, we test the duration hypothesis. This test is important, as it also has been argued that it may take time for deregulation to have an effect on religious involvement. Multilevel analysis on the stacked European and World Value Surveys of 1981, 1990, 2000, and 2006 show that deregulation fosters church attendance, but duration of deregulation does not increase church attendance. Although the deregulation hypothesis cannot be rejected, we find that modernization corrodes church attendance to a larger extent than deregulation can stimulate church attendance.     

Prospective and concurrent correlates of emotion perception in psychotic disorders: A naturalistic,longitudinal study of neurocognition,affective blunting and avolition

This naturalistic study investigated longitudinal and cross‐sectional symptomatic and neurocognitive correlates of social cognition indexed by emotion perception. Participants were 31 persons admitted to a psychiatric emergency ward due to acute psychosis. Positive and negative (i.e., affective blunting and avolition) symptoms were assessed at baseline and 12‐month follow‐up using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. Participants completed neuropsychological assessments with alternative versions of the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status at baseline and at 12‐month follow‐up. Emotion perception was measured using the Face/Voice Emotion Test at 12‐month follow‐up. Correlational analyses (Spearman's rho) revealed strong and statistically significant associations between neurocognition and emotion perception (baseline r = 0.58, follow‐up r = 0.43). Associations between positive symptoms and emotion perception were weak or non‐existent (baseline r = 0.13, follow‐up r  =  –0.01). Emotion perception was moderately, but not significantly, associated with affective blunting at follow‐up (r = 0.33), but not at baseline (r = 0.21). The association with avolition was non‐existent (baseline r  =  –0.05, follow‐up r = 0.01). This study supports the notion that emotion perception has neurocognitive correlates. The cross‐sectional trend level association with affective blunting suggests that the ability to perceive emotions might be related to, but dissociable from the ability to express emotions.     

Individual Religiosity,Moral Community,and Drug User Treatment

Some scholars have suggested that individual religiosity inhibits deviant behavior. Others have suggested that behavior is more responsive to the influence of religiously‐oriented moral communities than to the religiosity of individuals. Still others have suggested that non‐religious moral communities, such as sports teams or self‐help recovery groups, are just as effective as religious moral communities. The current article examines the associations between addicts' reductions in drug and alcohol use and religiosity, increase in church attendance, and increase in addiction self‐help recovery group attendance, following participation in publicly funded treatment programs. Results indicate that increase in self‐help recovery group attendance and church attendance were independently associated with reduction in alcohol use. Only increase in church attendance was significantly associated with reduction in cocaine use. Self‐assessed religious conviction was not associated with changes in drug use.     

Religion and HIV Risk Behaviors Among Married Men: Initial Results from a Study in Rural Sub-Saharan Africa

Although some scholars have identified religion as a possible protective factor in the AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa, evidence concerning the relationship between religion and AIDS behavior there remains sparse. Using a sample of married men from rural Malawi, we examine whether AIDS risk behavior and perceived risk are associated with religious affiliation or with religious involvement. Our analyses of data from the Malawi Diffusion and Ideational Change Project (2001) reveal substantial variation according to religious affiliation and religious involvement. Men belonging to Pentecostal churches consistently report lower levels of both HIV risk behavior and perceived risk. Regular attendance at religious services is associated both with reduced odds of reporting extramarital partners and with lower levels of perceived risk of infection.     

Religious Influences on Teenage Childbearing Among Brazilian Female Adolescents: A Research Note

Scholars have shown increasing interest in the social implications of Protestant and, specifically, Pentecostal expansion in Latin America over the past several decades. This study uses data from the National Demographic and Health Survey in Brazil to explore the influence of religious affiliation and attendance on the reproductive behavior of unmarried female adolescents (ages 15–19). Results demonstrate that religiously affiliated female adolescents are less likely to have had a child during their teen years when compared with their unaffiliated peers. These protective effects are quite robust for adolescents who claim a Pentecostal affiliation, which is consistent with the doctrine of sanctification, including norms of sexual restraint. Results also demonstrate that teens who attend worship services frequently are significantly less likely to have had a child. These findings augment prior research on religion and fertility while calling attention to the protective effects associated with emergent niches in Brazil's increasingly diversified religious economy.     

Religious Attendance and Social Support: Integration or Selection?

Although numerous studies have shown that religious attendance is associated with greater social support, concerns remain about selection into religious attendance and more supportive relationships. In this paper, we employ data collected from the 2011 Miami-Dade Health Survey (n?=?444) to assess the extent to which the association between religious attendance and social support is due to selection processes related to personality, health behavior, and health status. In our multinomial logistic regression of attendance, we find that the odds of weekly attendance are increased by extraversion and reduced by smoking. We also observe that religious attendance does not vary according to level of agreeableness, self-esteem, alcohol consumption, psychological distress, or physical health. In our regression of support, we find that respondents who attend religious services weekly or more tend to report more social support than respondents who never attend. This association persisted with adjustments for age, gender, race, immigrant status, interview language, education, employment status, household income, financial strain, marital status (parent and respondent), the presence of children, family difficulties, personality (agreeableness, extroversion, and self-esteem), health behavior (smoking, binge drinking, and substance use), and health status (psychological distress, activity limitations, and overall physical health). Across models, the association between weekly attendance and social support is attenuated by no more than 7%. This attenuation is due to personality (extraversion), not health behavior or health status. We conclude that the association between religious attendance and social support is primarily driven by integration processes rather than any selection processes we have considered.