NCJ Number
225737
Journal
Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse Volume: 7 Issue: 4 Dated: December 2008 Pages: 428-450
Date Published
December 2008
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This study assessed both the direct and indirect effects of family religiosity on adolescent substance use among African-American and European-American adolescents.
Abstract
Results suggest that both parental limit-setting and monitoring mediated the relationship between family religiosity and adolescent substance use for African-American adolescents; family religiosity had an effect on both parental monitoring and limit-setting, which had an effect on adolescent substance use. The direct effect of family religiosity on adolescent substance use became non-significant when controlling for parental limit-setting and monitoring in their respective analyses. Findings suggest that engaging in religious activities with their families did not directly deter African-American adolescents from engaging in substance use. Based on the findings, faith-based and non-faith based programs designed to reduce the risk of substance use among African-American adolescents whose families are religious should not solely focus on having these families engage in more religious activities together, but rather should build awareness and assist families to engage in more monitoring of and limit setting for their adolescents. As for European-American families, these families should be encouraged to engage in more religious activities with their adolescents and monitor and set limits for them. Data were collected from 6,894 adolescents whose ages ranged from 12 to 16 years of age as well as from 1 of the adolescent’s parents. Figure, tables and references