"I am spiritual, but not religious": Does one without the other protect against adolescent health-risk behaviour?

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Spirituality and religious attendance (RA) have been suggested to protect against adolescent health-risk behaviour (HRB). The aim of this study was to explore the interrelatedness of these two concepts in a secular environment.

Methods

A nationally representative sample (n = 4566, 14.4 ± 1.1 years, 48.8% boys) of adolescents participated in the 2014 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children cross-sectional study. RA, spirituality (modified version of the Spiritual Well-Being Scale), tobacco, alcohol, cannabis and drug use and the prevalence of sexual intercourse were measured.

Results

RA and spirituality were associated with a lower chance of weekly smoking, with odds ratios (OR) 0.57 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.36-0.88] for RA and 0.88 (0.80-0.97) for s

SUBMITTER: Malinakova K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6353810 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature