Hi Folks,
Each month i receive CROSSROADS, a Newsletter of the Center for Spirituality, Theology & Health Volume 9 Issue 8 Feb 2020. The link is to their latest newsletter.
One of the reported research studies caught my eye as I read the newsletter today. And so I thought I'd share it here.
To me, this is an example of the protective factor that involvement in a community of faith can have on adolescents. Faith can play a critical and valuable factor in helping one be resilient in the aftermath of life trauma that might occur early in life. And better yet, practicing faith can be a protective factor for all family members.
What follows is an excerpt of the newsletter:
Religiosity and Protection Against Substance Use from Adolescence to Adulthood
Investigators in the department of psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine and other institutions analyzed data from 674 participants in the Harlem Longitudinal Development Study (53% African-American and 47% Puerto Rican, 60% female). Substance use outcomes were for alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis use tracked from age 14 to age 36 across five waves of follow-up (T1 in 1990 to T5 in 2011-2013). Family church attendance was assessed at T1 by the following questions: “How often do: (a) you attend religious services?; (b) mother attend religious services?; (c) father attend religious services?” Other independent variables included low self-control, peer drug use, and parent-child attachment at T1; control variables included gender and race. Multinomial logistic regression and multivariate growth mixture models were used to identify trajectories of substance use, along with risk and protective factors. Resultsindicated six trajectories of substance use during the 22-year follow-up: (1) increasing alcohol use, increasing tobacco use, moderate cannabis use (IAITMC), (2) moderate alcohol use, low tobacco use, low cannabis use (MALTLC), (3) moderate alcohol use, high tobacco use, height cannabis use (MAHTHC), (4) increasing alcohol use, increasing tobacco use, increasing cannabis use (IAITIC), (5) increasing alcohol use, low tobacco use,
increasing cannabis use (IALTIC), and (6) low alcohol use, no tobacco use, no cannabis use (LANTNC). The worst trajectory was #4 (IAITIC) and the best trajectory was #6 (LANTNC). Youth with high family church attendance were 25% less likely to follow the IAITIC trajectory compared to the LANTNC trajectory (adjusted OR=0.75, 95% CI=0.60-0.92, p<0.01). Researchers concluded that: “Therefore, family church attendance may act as a protectivefactor against deviance such as substance use in adolescence. Here, the interesting point is that family church attendance in mid adolescence predicts individual’s alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis use in the future (i.e., in the 20s and 30s)...”
Citation: Lee, J. Y., Kim, W., Brook, J. S., Finch, S. J., & Brook, D. W. (2019). Adolescent risk and protective factors predicting triple trajectories of substance use from adolescence into adulthood. Journal of Child and Family Studies, E-pub ahead of press.
Comment: This was a long-term prospective study of a group of adolescents in the Harlem area of New York City at high risk for future substance use. The study adds further to the evidence that religious involvement during youth may help to protect against substance use disorders during adulthood.
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