Religiosity and decreased risk of substance use disorders: is the effect mediated by social support or mental health status?

The negative association between religiosity (religious beliefs and church attendance) and the likelihood of substance use disorders is well established, but the mechanism(s) remain poorly understood. We investigated whether this association was mediated by social support or mental health status. We utilized cross-sectional data from the 2002 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (n = 36,370). We first used logistic regression to regress any alcohol use in the past year on sociodemographic and religiosity variables. Then, among individuals who drank in the past year, we regressed past year alcohol abuse/dependence on sociodemographic and religiosity variables. To investigate whether social support mediated the association between religiosity and alcohol use and alcohol abuse/dependence we repeated the above models, adding the social support variables. To the extent that these added predictors modified the magnitude of the effect of the religiosity variables, we interpreted social support as a possible mediator. We also formally tested for mediation using path analysis. We investigated the possible mediating role of mental health status analogously. Parallel sets of analyses were conducted for any drug use, and drug abuse/dependence among those using any drugs as the dependent variables. The addition of social support and mental health status variables to logistic regression models had little effect on the magnitude of the religiosity coefficients in any of the models. While some of the tests of mediation were significant in the path analyses, the results were not always in the expected direction, and the magnitude of the effects was small. The association between religiosity and decreased likelihood of a substance use disorder does not appear to be substantively mediated by either social support or mental health status

High school drinking mediates the relationship between parental monitoring and college drinking: A longitudinal analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>College drinking is a significant public health problem. Although parental monitoring and supervision reduces the risk for alcohol consumption among younger adolescents, few studies have investigated the impact of earlier parental monitoring on later college drinking. This study examined whether parental monitoring indirectly exerts a protective effect on college drinking by reducing high school alcohol consumption.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A longitudinal cohort of 1,253 male and female students, ages 17 to 19, attending a large, public, mid-Atlantic university was studied at two time points. First, data on high school parental monitoring and alcohol consumption were gathered via questionnaire during the summer prior to college entry. Second, during the first year of college, past-year alcohol consumption was measured via a personal interview. Multiple regression models tested the relationship between parental monitoring and past year alcohol use (i.e., number of drinks per drinking day).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Holding constant demographics, SAT score, and religiosity, parental monitoring had a significant protective effect on both high school and college drinking level. However, the association between parental monitoring and college drinking level became non-significant once high school drinking level was held constant.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>While parental monitoring did not directly influence college alcohol consumption, evidence for mediation was observed, whereby parental monitoring had an indirect influence on college drinking through reductions in high school drinking. Initiatives that promote effective parenting might be an important strategy to curb high-risk drinking among older adolescents. More research is needed to understand the nature and degree of parent-child communication that is necessary to extend the protective influence of parents into the college years.</p

Religião e uso de drogas por adolescentes Religion and drug use by adolescents

INTRODUÇÃO: Estudos internacionais e nacionais mostram que a religiosidade é um modulador importante no consumo de álcool e drogas entre estudantes adolescentes. OBJETIVOS: verificar se diferentes variáveis da religiosidade influenciam o uso freqüente e/ou pesado de álcool e drogas entre estudantes de 1º e 2º graus. MÉTODOS: Estudo transversal com uma técnica de amostragem do tipo intencional. Foi utilizado um questionário anônimo de autopreenchimento. A amostra foi constituída por 2.287 estudantes de escolas públicas periféricas e centrais e escolas particulares da cidade de Campinas, SP, entrevistados no ano de 1998. As drogas estudadas foram: álcool, tabaco, solventes, medicamentos, maconha, cocaína e ecstasy. As variáveis independentes incluídas na análise de regressão logística foram: filiação religiosa, freqüência de ida ao culto/missa por mês, considerar-se pessoa religiosa e educação religiosa na infância. Para identificar como as variáveis de religiosidade influenciam o uso de álcool e drogas utilizaram-se análises bivariadas e a análise de regressão logística para resposta dicotômica. RESULTADOS: O uso pesado de pelo menos uma droga foi maior entre os estudantes que tiveram educação na infância sem religião. O uso no mês de cocaína e de "medicamentos para dar barato" foi maior nos estudantes que não tinham religião. O uso no mês de ecstasy e de "medicamentos para dar barato" foi maior nos estudantes que não tiveram educação religiosa na infância. CONCLUSÕES: Várias dimensões da religiosidade relacionam-se com o uso de drogas por adolescentes, com possível efeito inibidor. Particularmente interessante foi que uma maior educação religiosa na infância mostrou-se marcadamente importante em tal possível inibição.<br>INTRODUCTION: Many international studies show that religion is an important dimension modulating the use of alcohol and drugs by adolescents. OBJECTIVES: to determine which religious variables are associated to frequent or heavy use of alcohol, tobacco and drugs among adolescents in intermediate and high schools in Campinas, Brazil. METHODS: A cross-sectional study using a self-report anonymous questionnaire was administered to 2.287 students from a convenience sample of seven schools: five from central areas (two public and three private schools) and two public schools from the outskirts of the city, in 1998. The study analyzes data regarding the use of alcohol, tobacco, medicines, solvents, marijuana, cocaine and ecstasy. The religious variables included in the regression analysis were: religious affiliation, church attendance, self-assessed religiousness, and religious education in childhood. For the substances, nicotine, alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy and "abuse of medicines" a logistic regression analysis for dicotomic answer was applied. RESULTS: The heavy use of at least one drug during the last month was more frequent among students that did not have a religious education during childhood. The use in the last month of cocaine, ecstasy and (abuse of) medicines was more frequent among those students that had no religion (cocaine and medicines) and that did not have a religious education during childhood (ecstasy and medicines). CONCLUSIONS: this study is consistent with previous investigations demonstrating a strong influence of religious variables over the use of drugs among adolescents. Interesting, it was found that no or weaker religious education during childhood was markedly associated with significant more use of drugs during adolescence