The Association Between Childhood Religion and Adult Substance Use

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Clio Gourevitch

Clio is a Sophomore at Wesleyan University and is a double major in Art Studio and Philosophy. She works at the Zilkha Gallery and is the Music Director on the board of the radio station WESU. Before Wesleyan, she grew up in New York and attended Bard High School Early College Queens. Through the course Applied Data Analysis, she studied the relationship between childhood religiosity and later substance use and abuse with the additional factor of gender.

Abstract: While little research has been done on the longitudinal relationship between childhood religion and later substance abuse, much has been done on the relationship between the two when they are concurrent. Prior literature has shown that increased current religiosity is associated with lower current substance use and abuse. In this study, I analyzed the relationship between childhood religion and later substance abuse with consideration to the third variable of sex. It was found that sex does not moderate the relationship between childhood religion and later substance abuse but that when controlling for sex, those who answered “no sacred scriptures” are statistically likely to have a higher substance abuse score than those who answered “agree” to the question “Do you agree or disagree that the sacred scriptures of your religion are the word of God and are completely without any mistakes?”

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