Is religiosity a protective factor against substance use in young adulthood? Only if you're straight!
OBJECTIVE
Previous research has documented that substance use peaks during young adulthood and that religiosity provides a protective effect against binge drinking, marijuana use, and cigarette smoking. The majority of these studies do not examine sexual identity as it relates to these factors. Drawing on social influence and developmental theories, we tested the hypothesis that religiosity would provide a protective effect for heterosexual but not sexual minority young adults.


METHODS
Waves 1 and 3 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health provided data for the study. Three young adult sexual identity groups were formed: sexual minorities who did not report same-sex attraction at Wave 1 (NA), sexual minorities who did report same-sex attraction at Wave 1 (SSA), and heterosexuals (HET) (sample n = 764).


RESULTS
Religiosity measured at baseline had no significant effect on past-year substance use, measured six years later in sexual minority young adults. For heterosexual young adults, each unit increase in religiosity reduced the odds of binge drinking by 9%, marijuana use by 20%, and cigarette smoking by 13%.


CONCLUSIONS
Religiosity was not protective against substance use in sexual minority young adults, cautioning against over-generalizing previous findings about the protective effects of religiosity. Future studies that 1) consider the social context for sexual identity development, 2) model both risk and protective factors, and 3) use multidimensional measures of religiosity (and spirituality) and sexual identity are needed to build the necessary knowledge base for effective health promotion efforts among sexual minority youth and young adults.
Rostosky
Sharon S
SS
Department of Political Science and Women and Gender Studies, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506-0017, USA. rostosk@uky.edu
Danner
Fred
F
Riggle
Ellen D B
ED
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008913:Minority Groups / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016017:Odds Ratio; D015995:Prevalence; D011336:Probability; D011606:Psychosexual Development; D012067:Religion; D018570:Risk Assessment; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012747:Sexual Partners; D029181:Spirituality; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology