Processes Linking Parents' and Adolescents' Religiousness and Adolescent Substance Use: Monitoring and Self-Control

• NCJ Number: 246669
• Journal: Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 43 Issue: 5 Dated: May 2014 Pages: 745-756
• Author(s): Jungmeen Kim-Spoon; Julee P. Farley; Christopher Holmes; Gregory S. Longo; Michael E. McCullough
• Date Published: May 2014
• Length: 12 pages
• Grant Number(s): HD057386
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD); John Templeton Foundation
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The current study examined whether parents' and adolescents' religiousness are associated positively with parental, religious, and self-monitoring, which in turn are related to higher self-control, thereby related to lower adolescent substance use.

Abstract

Empirical evidence suggests that religiousness is related negatively to adolescent substance use; yet, little is known about how such protective effects might occur. The current study examined whether parents' and adolescents' religiousness are associated positively with parental, religious, and self-monitoring, which in turn are related to higher self-control, thereby related to lower adolescent substance use. Participants were 220 adolescents (45 percent female) who were interviewed at ages 10-16 and again 2.4 years later. Structural equation modeling analyses suggested that higher adolescents' religiousness at Time 1 was related to lower substance use at Time 2 indirectly through religious monitoring, self-monitoring, and self-control. Higher parents' religiousness at Time 1 was associated with higher parental monitoring at Time 2, which in turn was related to lower adolescent substance use at Time 2 directly and indirectly through higher adolescent self-control. The results illustrate that adolescents with high awareness of being monitored by God are likely to show high self-control abilities and, consequently, low substance use. The findings further suggest that adolescents' religiousness as well as their religious environments (e.g., familial context) can facilitate desirable developmental outcomes. Abstract published by arrangement with Springer.