NCJ Number
206282
Date Published
2002
Length
68 pages
Annotation
This report on the findings of "Monitoring the Future," a nationally representative survey of high school seniors that focuses on a wide array of respondents' activities, addresses the relationship between participation in religious activities and the lifestyles of the survey respondents.
Abstract
The 1996 survey solicited information from 2,478 high school seniors on a wide range of topics of interest to policymakers, parents, schools, and youth workers, such as drug and alcohol use, criminal behavior, extracurricular activities, and self-esteem. The analyses of findings used multiple regression techniques that allowed control for nine factors that may be related to outcomes of interest. These nine control factors were race, age, sex, rural versus urban residence, region, education of parents, number of siblings, whether the mother works, and the presence of a father or male guardian in the household. The variables pertinent to involvement in religious activities were frequency of religious service attendance, the importance of religion, years of participation in religious youth groups, and religious affiliation. Of the 30 delinquency, risk, and activity outcomes investigated in the survey, only 1 (taking a gun to school, a relatively rare event) was not significantly related to the degree of involvement in religious activities. The youths most involved in religious activities were significantly less likely to be involved in substance abuse, risky and dangerous behaviors, crime and violence, and school problems; and they were more likely to be involved in constructive activities in the community and school. Parents of the religious youth were also more likely than the parents of nonreligious youth to be involved in monitoring their children and in achieving noncombative interactions with their children. 21 tables