The Effects of Religiosity on Adolescent Self-Reported Frequency of Drug and Alcohol Use

Abstract

Homogeneous effects cumulative logistic regression is used to examine the effects of personal religiosity on adolescent self-reported frequency of drug and alcohol use. Survey data from a sample of 3,065 male and female adolescents in grades 7 through 12 in three midwestern states are employed. While the existence of an inverse religiosity-substance use relationship is well documented, questions still exist concerning the nature of these relationships. A review of the literature reveals three rival hypotheses concerning variation in the strength of these relationships across drug types: the Anti-Asceticism hypothesis, which predicts stronger relationships among the “softer” drug types; the Moral Condemnation hypothesis, which predicts stronger relationships among the “harder” drugs; and the Hellfire hypothesis, which predicts stable effects across drug types. These data provide strong support for the more general Hellfire hypothesis, with equivalent parameter estimates for the effects of religiosity observed for each drug type. However, slightly weaker effects are observed for adolescentuse of alcohol.