Severing the Ties of Intergenerational Substance Use: An Exploration of the Moderating Influence of Religiosity

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Abstract

Previous research has shown that there is a strong connection between parental substance use and subsequent initiation into substance use by the child. Research also shows an association between religiosity and lower rates of substance use. In this paper, I use a cross-sectional dataset from Davidson County, Tennessee to determine if self-report measures of religiosity are linked with lower levels of substance use for respondents whose parents were substance abusers. Regressions were run separately for men and women, and I find that the association between parental substance use and illicit drug use is weaker for male respondents who report higher levels of religiosity. While I find evidence to support my hypothesis that higher levels of religiosity dampen the association between parental and child substance use, there are limitations to the study. Replication using longitudinal data will be necessary to determine the direction of the association between religiosity and intergenerational transmission of substance use. Longitudinal data will also help parse out possible cohort effects on incidence of substance use. Nevertheless, this study furthers the research on religiosity and substance use by performing analyses specific to illicit drug use and by exploring gender variations in these associations.

Author

• Susan Jacobs, Duke University