Parental Religious Service Attendance and Adolescent Substance Use

Abstract

This study examined the differential effects of both parents’ religious service attendance on adolescent substance use. A secondary data analysis of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997, Round 1 was conducted using a sample of 4,828 adolescents ages 12 to 16 (mean age 14 years). Results suggest that attending religious services more than once a week by both parents is associated with adolescents being less likely to use substances. Adolescents residing in households where the father never attended religious services and the mother attended religious services once a month and adolescents residing in households where the father never attended religious services and the mother attended more than once a week were almost 4 times more likely to use substances than adolescents residing in households where both parents attended religious services more than once a week. There was no evidence to support that having one parent attending religious services more than the other compensated for the effects of the low frequency attending parent. Implications for faith-based policy initiatives and practice are discussed. Future research should determine why having a more frequent attending parent did not compensate for the effects of having a low frequent attending parent on adolescent substance use.

Keywords:

• religion
• adolescents
• substance use

Acknowledgments

Kristen M. Brown was supported by an internship from Project L/EARN, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (Grant # R25 MH58908). Currently, she is a dual degree Masters in Human Genetics and Epidemiology PhD student in the Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.