Religiosity and Effortful Control as Predictors of Indonesian Adolescents’ Tobacco and Alcohol Use: Moderation and Mediation

Abstract

Moderation and mediation models of religiosity and effortful control as predictors of tobacco and alcohol use were tested in this 2‐year longitudinal study of 563 16‐year‐old Muslim Indonesian adolescents. Adolescents reported their effortful control, religiosity, and tobacco and alcohol use and peers provided reports of adolescents’ effortful control. Although both moderation and mediation effects emerged when predicting Year 2 substance use, predictions of change from Year 1 to Year 2 substance use yielded effects of moderation for peer‐ but not self‐reported effortful control for boys; no mediation effects emerged. These findings provide evidence of interconnections between effortful control and religiosity as predictors of substance use and suggest the need for further longitudinal studies that compare moderation and mediation models.

An examination of reciprocal associations between substance use and effortful control across adolescence using a bifactor model of externalizing symptoms

“…EC is closely tied to executive functioning (EF) (Zhou, Chen, & Main, 2012) and influenced by genes and the environment over time (Posner & Rothbart, 1998). Indeed, there is evidence that a variety of environmental factors impact developmental trajectories of EC throughout adolescence and emerging adulthood (Eisenberg et al, 2005; Fosco, Caruthers, & Dishion, 2012). Brain-imaging studies suggest that EC is linked to changes in critical regions in the prefrontal cortex that underlie executive functions and that remain plastic throughout adolescence and emerging adulthood (Selemon, 2013; Vijayakumar et al, 2014; Wei et al, 2019).…”

Romance, religion, and problem behavior in Indonesian Muslim adolescents

“…The correlations between the three subscales ranged between 0.48 and 0.72. This scale had good internal consistency and longitudinal stability in prior Indonesian studies (e.g., French et al, 2014;French, Purwono, Zhao, Shen, & Eisenberg, 2019).…”

Religiosity and positive religious coping as predictors of Indonesian Muslim adolescents’ externalizing behavior and loneliness.

“…In several studies of Indonesian adolescents, religiosity was negatively associated with antisocial behavior (i.e., tobacco or alcohol use, a problem behavior composite score that incorporated substance use and minor rule breaking and delinquent activities, or aggression toward peers). In a 2-year longitudinal study of 16year-old adolescents, French et al (2019) found that religiosity negatively predicted both tobacco and alcohol use. In studies using a different sample than the one just reported, French, Eisenberg, Vaughan, Purwono, and Suryanti (2008) and Sallquist, Eisenberg, French, Purwono, and Suryanti (2010) found that self-rated and parent-rated adolescent religiosity were negatively associated with adolescent-rated problem behavior (i.e., lying, stealing, tobacco and alcohol use, and rule breaking) both concurrently and longitudinally.…”

“…There are a variety of ways that religiosity may contribute to the causal trajectory of antisocial behavior. First, adolescents who have a tendency to break rules and exhibit low self-regulation are likely to disobey both religious rules (i.e., religiosity) and societal rules (i.e., antisocial behavior; French, Purwono, Zhao, Shen, & Eisenberg, 2019). Second, Indonesian Muslim adolescent religiosity is positively associated with parent religiosity (French et al, 2013), and parents who are low in religiosity may be more tolerant This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.…”

“…These studies, in conjunction with those from Indonesia, provide consistent evidence that religiosity is negatively associated with antisocial behavior in Muslim youth. With the exception of the work by French et al (2019) discussed earlier, the studies explor-ing this question have been cross-sectional, and consequently, longitudinal research is required.…”