Name: James Bailey
Live Poster Session: Zoom Link
Abstract: This study looks at the relationship between religion and marijuana and alcohol abuse. The goal of the study is to see if being religious deters the abuse of marijuana and alcohol. I decided to look at this research question because I have always been religious and I was curious is values or levels of religiosity had an impact on the abuse of drugs and alcohol. Abuse is defined as drinking alcohol or using marijuana more everyday or more than once a day. The research question asks what the association is between religion and substance abuse. It analyzes data from Wave 5 of the ADDHEALTH longitudinal study to try and answer this question. The study shows that in general, being religious to some degree does deter the abuse of substances. In terms of alcohol abuse, being religious, especially Protestant, deters people from abusing alcohol. In terms of marijuana being Protestant and Christian deters those from using marijuana everyday. When adding a third variable to the regression it was found that attending religious services to any degree decreases the likelihood that someone abuses marijuana but does not influence the usage of alcohol.
Bailey-Poster