The Effect of Religion and Religiosity on Drug Use Among a Selected Sample of Post Secondary Students in Scotland

Abstract

When in the collection and within a category, click on "title" to see all items in alphabetical order. The CollectionThis document is part of a collection that serves two purposes. First, it is a digital archive for a sampling of unpublished documents, presentations, questionnaires and limited publications resulting from over forty years of research. Second, it is a public archive for data on college student drinking patterns on the national and international level collected for over 20 years. Research topics by Dr. Engs have included the exploration of hypotheses concerning the determinants of behaviors such as student drinking patterns; models that have examine the etiology of cycles of prohibition and temperance movements, origins of western European drinking cultures (attitudes and behaviors concerning alcohol) from antiquity, eugenics, Progressive Era, and other social reform movements with moral overtones-Clean Living Movements; biographies of health and social reformers including Upton Sinclair; and oral histories of elderly monks. Indiana University Archives BackgroundSome studies suggest that religious variables are associated with substance use and abuse however, they tend to be compartmentalized into alcohol, tobacco, or illicit drugs. Few have examined both licit and illicit drugs. The purpose of this study was to investigate the patterns of licit and illicit recreational drug use among postsecondary students in terms of religious background and religiosity. Method: the Queensland Alcohol and Drug Study Questionnaire was completed by students attending courses in "helping profession" departments such as medicine, nursing, education, and psychology from 22 departments at universities and colleges in five Scottish cities. The sample consisted of 3117 females and 949 males. ResultsAmong female students a higher percent (p <.05) who were Not Religious consumed over 14 drinks per week (55.5 vs 36.2%), tobacco (43.3 vs 29.3%), marijuana (32.4 vs 15. 1 %), amphetamines (8.4 vs 4. 1 %), LSD (7.4 vs 2.9%), and Ecstasy (4.8 vs 2. 1 %) compared to those who were Very Religious. A higher percent of Roman Catholic's consumed alcoholic beverages while a higher percent of Protestants, other than Church of Scotland, consumed tobacco. For all other substances those with "other" or no religious background had a higher proportion of users. There was a positive association between illicit drug use and both high alcohol consumption and tobacco use. In particular a strong association was found between tobacco and marijuana (r=.45). Among males a higher proportion of students (p <.05) who were Not Religious consumed over 21 drinks per week (61.3 vs 32.4%), tobacco, (47.8 vs 35.2%), marijuana (50.2 vs 28.3%), amphetamines (15.9 vs 8.0%), LSD (17.6 vs 8.4%), and Ecstasy (9.2 vs 5.2%) compared to students who were Very Religious. A higher percentage of male 1 students with "other" or no religious backgrounds used tobacco and a higher proportion of Roman Catholics used marijuana, amphetamines and Ecstasy. Illicit drug consump...

Social dimensions of adolescent substance use

“…One of the strongest associations was found in relation to alcohol: just over 31% of those who worshipped regularly drank compared to 68.3% of non-worshippers. This difference was greater than that suggested by previous work (Engs & Mullen, 1999). A possible partial explanation for this may lie in the ethnic composition of the sample.…”

Relationship between Alcohol Use Disorder and Cognitive Reappraisal Among Youth Seeking Help in Rehabilitation Centers in Kiambu County, Kenya

“…This confirms previous studies that Catholics used alcohol more compared to individuals from other religious orientations (Mullen, Williams, & Hunt, 1996). This could be attributed to the fact that Catholics are more accommodative of alcohol use compared to protestants, and therefore have increased risks of developing AUD (Engs & Mullen, 1999). Further, religion has been positively correlated to adaptive self-regulation skills especially cognitive reappraisal (McCullough and Willoughby, 2009), a strategy which has been shown to lessen the likelihood of an individual's engagement in alcohol abuse when dealing with negative emotional states (Gross &John 2003).…”

Assessment of acculturation in minority health research

“…Internal aspects of culture can affect health only indirectly , often mediated by behavior or psychological stress. For example, low degree of internal adherence to traditional religiosity does not directly change human biology, but may have an indirect influence by affecting whether an individual engages in illicit drug use (Engs & Mullen, 1999), which affects biology.…”