Studies Find Religious Involvement Strengthens Protective Factors Against Drug Use
October 31, 2007
Addressing a recent conference hosted by The Heritage Foundation, Dr. Byron Johnson, Co-Director of the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion (ISR), and Dr. Joon Jang, Associate Professor of Sociology, Baylor University, addressed "The Long-Term Effects of Religious Involvement on Drug Use."
Presenting at the conference Religious Practice and Civic Life: What the Research Says, held earlier this month in Arlington, VA, Drs. Johnson, and Jang reported findings from a study funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention on the role religion plays in prosocial youth behavior. The findings indicate that religiosity during adolescence and early adulthood strengthens protective factors and weakens risk factors that promote drug use.
Other studies presented at the conference noted similar findings. Dr. John Wallace, Associate Professor of Social Work, University of Pittsburgh, reported that the higher students' level of religiosity, the less likely they are to binge drink or use marijuana, while Dr. Scott A. Desmond, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Purdue University, and colleagues, reported that adolescents' religiosity had a significant positive association with self control, and both religion and self control are related to fewer delinquent behaviors such as marijuana and alcohol use.
Resources:
For additional information about the ISR study, visit http://www.baylor.edu/pr/news.php?action=story&story=42314.
For an earlier related study, see http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/24227.pdf.
For the complete paper by Dr. Wallace, see Wallace, J.M., et al., "Religiosity and Adolescent Substance Use: The Role of Individual and Community Influences," Social Problems, Vol. 54, No.2 (May 2007), pp. 308–27.
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