Religiosity and Associations with Substance Use and Delinquency among Urban African American Adolescents

• In Event: Poster Session 14
  In Poster Session: PS 14 Topic - Moral Development

Abstract

Background: Religiosity, defined as a level of commitment to religious practice, has been implicated in research on adolescent behaviors. Although research has examined the role of religiosity in adolescent risk behaviors, including delinquency and substance use, findings have been inconsistent (Johnson et al., 2000; Merrill et al., 2001). In the current study, we explore the heterogeneity of religiosity using a person-centered approach and examine whether religiosity has any associations with substance use and delinquency among a sample of urban African American adolescents (ages 13-18) in Chicago’s Southside. Methods: Latent Class Analysis was used to examining the heterogeneity in five categorical measures of religiosity items (Masyn, 2013, Vermunt, 2010). The five religiosity items included “How important are your religious/spiritual beliefs and practices to you?”, “Do you believe in God?”, “Do you pray or meditate?”, “Attend church and/or other religious services?”, and “Talk to others about religious or spiritual concerns?” We used the manual three-step approach (Asparouhov and Muthen, 2014) to examine how demographic variables were associated with the classes using multinomial logistic regression and then used the classes to examine the associations with substance use and delinquency using logistic and linear regression. Results: Fit indices showed that the three-class solution fit the data best and had an entropy value of .79. The class with the lowest probabilities of religiosity was labeled “low religious beliefs and engagement” (15.19%, n = 94; Class 1). The class that reported religiosity beliefs but had low active engagement was labeled “low active religious engagement,” (56.70%, n = 351; Class 2), and the class that reported religiosity beliefs with high active engagement was labeled “highly active religious engagement” (28.11%, n = 174; Class 3). There were no significant differences found for the protective effects of religiosity on tobacco use or binge drinking (see Table 1). However, individuals in the highly active religious engagement class reported significantly lower probabilities of alcohol and cannabis use compared to the low religious beliefs and engagement and religious with low active engagement classes. No significant differences were found for the religiosity classes on threating behaviors, social media fights, or peer deviance (see Table 2). However, individuals in the highly active religious engagement class reported significantly lower average rates of theft compared to the low active religious engagement class. Further, individuals in the low active religious engagement class reported significantly lower average rates of assault compared to the low religious beliefs and engagement class. Finally, individuals in the highly active religious engagement class reported significantly lower average rates of physical fighting compared to the religious with high active engagement class. Conclusions: Religiosity when measured using a person-centered approach shows lower rates of some forms of substance use and delinquency.

Authors

• Javari Akele Fairclough, Texas Tech University
  Presenting Author

• Gabriel J Merrin, Syracuse University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jun Sung Hong, Wayne State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sarah Mountain, Wayne State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Dexter R Voisin, University of Toronto
  Non-Presenting Author