Given
the extent to which religious practice promotes civil society, understanding
religion’s contribution to America’s constitutional order is fundamental to the
nation’s continued prosperity. The practice of Religion is a powerful antidote
to many of our nation’s pressing social problems, many of which have reached
historically high proportions. Yet, despite the societal benefits of Religion,
the expression of faith in the public square has faced many challenges.
Therefore, legislators should seek constitutionally appropriate ways to explore
the impact of religious practice on society and, where appropriate, recognize
its role and importance.
Religion and marriage: There are many indications that the combination of
religious practice and stable marital relationships contributes to a strong and
successful next generation. We already know that stable marriage is associated
with improved physical, intellectual, mental, and emotional health of men,
women, and children, as well as equipping them with the values and habits that
promote prosperous economic activity. Religious practice is also related to
positive outcomes for the stability and quality of marriage.
Marriage: Numerous sociological studies have shown that valuing
Religion and regularly practicing it are associated with greater marital
stability, higher levels of marital satisfaction, and an increased likelihood
that an individual will be inclined to marry. Christopher Ellison of the
University of Texas at Austin and his colleagues found that couples who
acknowledged a divine purpose in their marriage were more likely to
collaborate, to have greater marital adjustment, and to perceive more benefits
from marriage and were less likely to use aggression or to come to a stalemate
in their disagreements. Earlier research found that couples whose marriages
lasted 30 years or more reported that their faith helped them to deal with
difficult times, was a source of moral guidance in making decisions and dealing
with conflict, and encouraged them to maintain their commitment to their
marriages.
Divorce: Four of every 10 children experience parental
divorce, but a link between religious practice and a decreased likelihood of
divorce has been established in numerous studies. Women who are more religious
are less likely to experience divorce or separation than their less religious
peers. Marriages in which both spouses attend religious services frequently are
2.4 times less likely to end in divorce than marriages in which neither spouse
worships. Those who view their religious beliefs as “very important” are 22
percent less likely to divorce than those for whom religious beliefs are only
‘somewhat important.” The sociological literature reviews by the late David
Larson of the Duke University Medical School and his colleagues indicated that
religious attendance is the most important predictor of marital stability,
confirming studies conducted as far back as 50 years ago.
The
likelihood of divorce is even further reduced when husbands and wives share the
same religious commitment. Such couples report having a greater sense of
well-being and more satisfaction with their marital relationship, and they are
less likely to commit acts of domestic violence. A study of couples with
divergent theological views showed that they were more likely to argue,
especially about financial matters. Intermarriage across major faith groups is
also linked with greater marital instability. Furthermore, couples who share
the same faith are more likely to reunite if they separate than are couples who
do not share the same religious affiliation. In one study, one-third of the
separated spouses who had the same religious affiliation reconciled, compared
with less than one-fifth of those with different affiliations.
During
the 1980s and 1990s, when religious practice decreased overall, the association
between regular religious attendance and marital stability became even more
apparent. Those who had ceased religious practice divorced 2.5 times more
frequently than those who continued to attend religious services. Paul Amato, a
leading authority on the sociology of divorce from Pennsylvania State
University, concluded that a possible increase in religious practice among some
already existing marriages might have offset the negative effects of the overall
decrease in religious practice among many other Americans, The rise in
religious practice in this newly worshipping sector between 1980 and 2000
brought about increased support for lifelong marriage and counterbalanced, at
the national aggregate level, two other trends: the increased incidence of
premarital cohabitation and the increased work hours of married women, both of
whichare associated with decreased marital satisfaction and a greater
likelihood of divorce. Amato concluded that this increase in religious worship
in one subgroup was one of the main factors in preventing growth in overall
levels of marital unhappiness and proneness to divorce. As a result, the
divorce rate in 2000 was nearly identical to the rate in 1980.
Marital Harmony and Satisfaction: The practice of Religion not only stabilizes marriage,
but also improves its quality. Brad Wilcox of the University of Virginia found
that the more frequently husbands attended religious services, the happier
their wives said they were with the level of affection and understanding that
they received and the amount of time that their husbands spent with them.
Earlier research had shown that the more frequently couples engage in religious
practice, the more they were satisfied with their marriages: 60 percent who
attended religious services at least monthly perceived their marriages as very
satisfactory, compared with only 43 percent of those who attended religious
services less often. A 1977 study indicated a link between religious practice and
marital sexuality: Very religious women had greater satisfaction in sexual
intercourse with their husbands than did moderately religious or non-religious
women.
Cohabitation: Studies consistently suggest that cohabitation is
associated with an increased likelihood of divorce. For example, Paul Amato,
confirming earlier indications, reported that couples who had lived together
before marriage were 59 percent more likely to divorce than those who did not.
Repeated
studies confirm the finding that those who attended religious services
infrequently and those who, as adolescents, considered Religion to be of low
importance are more likely to cohabit as young adults. Compared with peers who
attended religious services several times a week, young women who never
attended were seven times more likely to cohabit. Women who attended weekly
were one third less likely to cohabit than those who attended less than once a
month. The religious practice of parents also affects cohabitation rates. Those
whose mothers frequently attended religious services were 50 percent less
likely to cohabit than were peers whose mothers were not actively religious. A
related research finding reported that church-going adults tend to stop regular
religious practice when they begin to cohabit.
Religion and family Relations: In general, religious participation appears to foster
an authoritative, warm, active, and expressive style of parenting. In addition,
parents who attend religious services are more likely to enjoy a better
relationship with their children and are more likely to be involved with their
children’s education.{321 Moreover, the greater a child’s religious
involvement, the more likely both the child and parent will agree about the
quality of their relationship, the more similar their values will be, and the
greater their emotional closeness will be. However, some of the same research
also shows that religious differences within families can detract from the
parent-child relationship.
Mother-Child Relationship: Compared with mothers who did not consider Religion
important, those who deemed Religion to be very important rated their
relationship with their child significantly higher, according to a 1999 study.
When mothers and their children share the same level of religious practice,
they experience better relationships with one another. For instance, when
18-year-olds attended religious services with approximately the same frequency
as their mothers, the mothers reported significantly better relationships with
them, even many years later, indicating that the effects of similar religious
practice endures. Moreover, mothers who became more religious throughout the
first 18 years of their child’s life reported a better relationship with that
child, regardless of the level of their religious practice before the child was
born. Mothers who attended religious services less often over time reported a
lower-quality relationship with their adult child.
Grandmothers’
religious practice illustrates an intergenerational influence. The more religious
a mother’s mother is, the more likely the mother has a good relationship with
her own child.
Father-Child Relationship: Greater religious practice of fathers is associated
with better relationships with their children, higher expectations for good relationships
in the future, a greater investment in their relationships with their children,
a greater sense of obligation to stay in regular contact with their children,
and a greater likelihood of supporting their children and grandchildren.
Wilcox
found that fathers’ religious affiliations and religious attendance were
positively associated with their involvement in activities with their children,
such as one-on-one interaction, having dinner with their families, and
volunteering for youth-related activities, Compared with fathers who had no
religious affiliation, those who attended religious services frequently were
more likely to monitor their children, praise and hug their children, and spend
time with their children. In fact, fathers’ frequency of religious attendance
was a stronger predictor of paternal involvement in one-on-one activities with
children than were employment and income-the factors most frequently cited in
the academic literature on fatherhood.
Wilcox
also traced the “pathways” through which Religion affects fathers’
relationships with their children and concluded that religious affiliation and
especially religious attendance have unique effects that are independent of
conventional habits of civic engagement. The emphasis that Religion typically
places on family life, along with churches’ family-focused social networks of
support and psychological support of fatherhood, helps to explain why
religiously active fathers are more involved in youth-related activities.
Domestic Violence: A small but growing body of research has focused on
the links between religious practice and decreased family violence. For
example, men who attended religious services at least weekly were more than 50
percent less likely to commit an act of violence against their partners than
were peers who attended only once a year or less. No matter how the data were
analyzed, regular attendance at religious services had a strong and
statistically significant inverse association with the incidence of domestic
abuse. Similarly, after controlling for all other factors, Wilcox found that of
all groups studied (unaffiliated, active conservative Protestant, active
mainline Protestant, nominal conservative Protestant, and nominal mainline
Protestants), religiously active conservative Protestant men were least likely
to engage iii domestic violence.
Religion and Extramarital Sex: Religious belief and practice are associated with less
permissive attitudes toward extramarital sex and correspondingly lower rates of
non-marital sexual activity among adolescents and adults.
Attitudes Regarding Non-Marital Sex: Numerous recent studies have found a relationship
between religious practice and less permissive attitudes toward non-marital
sex. Lisa Wade of the University of Wisconsin and Sharon Rostosky of the
University of Kentucky reported that religious influence was the strongest
significant predictor of less permissive sexual attitudes for both men and
women. Wilcox found that, among both conservative and mainline Protestants,
religious affiliation and religious attendance consistently predicted negative
attitudes toward divorce and premarital sex. A study of trends in the
Netherlands covering a 30-year period also found that individuals who attended
religious services more often were less likely to be accepting of extramarital
sexual relationships.
These
recent findings support and expand upon earlier research, such as a 1989 study
of adolescents that found that youth who attended religious services more
frequently had less permissive attitudes toward sexual activity and less sexual
experience than peers who attended religious services less frequently.
Adolescent Sexual Behavior: Religious practice and placing a high significance on
Religion are associated with decreased non-marital sexual activity. After
parental marriage, religious practice is probably the most significant factor
related to reduced teen sexual activity. Analysis of data from the National
Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health found that a one-unit increase in
religiosity reduced the odds of becoming sexually active by 16 percent for
girls and by 12 percent for boys. Another study found that traditional values
and religious beliefs were among the most common factors cited by teens as
their reason for remaining sexually abstinent, second only to fear (e.g., fear
of an unwanted pregnancy, a sexually transmitted disease, or parental
discipline). The level of overall religious practice in a community also
influences the sexual behavior of its youth: The greater the level of religious
practice, the lower the level of teen sexual activity.
In
a 2002 review of the academic literature on the effects of Religion, 97 percent
of the studies reported significant correlations between increased religious
involvement and a lower likelihood of promiscuous sexual behaviors. The authors
found that individuals with higher levels of religious commitment and those who
regularly attended religious services were generally much less likely to engage
in premarital sex or extramarital affairs or to have multiple sexual partners.
Out-of-Wedlock Childbearing: Thirty-seven percent of births now occur out of
wedlock, with an increasing number born to cohabiting parents. However, given
the findings on the relationship between religious practice and non-marital
sex, attitudes, and behavior, it is not surprising that regular religious
practice is one of the most powerful factors in preventing out-of-wedlock
births. Rates of such births are markedly higher among young women who do not
have a religious affiliation than among peers who do.
The
level of young women’s religious commitment also makes a significant
difference. Compared with those who viewed themselves as being “very
religious,” those who were “not at all religious” were far more likely to bear
a child out of wedlock (among whites, three times as likely; among Hispanics,
2.5 times as likely; and among blacks, twice as likely). At the state aggregate
level, the same phenomenon occurs. States with higher rates of religious
attendance have lower rates of teenage pregnancy.
Religion and the Abuse of Alcohol and
drugs: Numerous studies demonstrate a
significant association between religious practice and healthy behavioral
habits relating to cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs. Individuals with higher levels
of religious involvement have lower rates of abuse and addiction and are more
likely to find long-lasting success if they ever struggled with any of these
behaviors.
Cigarette Use: Harold Koenig and colleagues at Duke University found
that religious activity was inversely related to cigarette consumption among
the elderly. The late Feroz Ahmed and colleagues at Howard University found the
same for African-American women of childbearing age.
Alcohol Abuse: Decades of research indicate that a higher level of
religious involvement is associated with a reduced likelihood of abusing
alcohol or drugs. The relationship between religious practice and the avoidance
or moderate use of alcohol is well documented, whether or not denominational
tenets specifically prohibit the use of alcohol.
Adolescents,
psychiatric patients, and recovering addicts all show lower rates of alcohol
abuse the more frequently they engage in religious activities. For adolescents,
higher levels of religious practice by their mothers are related to
significantly lower rates of alcohol abuse, even after controlling for
religious denomination and the adolescents’ peer associations-two factors that
also influence the level of drinking.
Drug Abuse: Just as with alcohol, religious practice has for some
time predicted significant reduction of substance abuse. In a comprehensive
review of the academic literature on Religion and substance abuse, Byron
Johnson of Baylor University and his colleagues reported that, in the vast
majority of studies, participation in religious activities was associated with
less drug abuse. Even in cases in which individuals used drugs, the more
religious were less likely to develop long-term problems. All of the factors
related to a decrease in drug use-good family relations, doing well in school,
having friends who do not use drugs, and having anti-drug attitudes-had an even
more powerful deterrent effect when teenagers were also religious, The more
dangerous the drug, the more religious practice deterred its use.
Just
as religious practice and belief deter drug abuse, Religion also has a positive
effect in the treatment of drug addiction. In 1994, a seven-year follow-up
study of Teen Challenge, a faith-based drug addiction program, found that the
program’s graduates had significantly changed their behavior, in contrast to
those who had dropped out. A Northwestern University study also found that Teen
Challenge participants were more likely to remain sober and to maintain
employment than were peers in control groups.
Religion and Mental Health: In a review of mental health research that referenced
decades of social science studies, 81 percent of the 99 studies reviewed found
“some positive association... between religious involvement and greater
happiness, life satisfaction, morale, positive affect, or some other measure of
well-being.” This analysis included a wide diversity among ages, races, and
denominations.
Happiness and Well-Being: Happy peopletend to be productive and law-abiding and
also tend to learn well, thus having a positive impact on society. A review of
the research shows that Religion significantly affects the level of an
individual’s happiness and overall sense of well-being. In the vast majority of
the studies reviewed, an increase in religious practice was associated with
having greater hope and a greater sense of purpose in life.
Stress, Self-Esteem, and Coping Skills: More frequent attendance at religious services
predicts less distress, even when controlling for the normal socio-demographic
predictors of this condition. findings hold for high-school students. For
adults, a strong belief in eternal life also predicts less harmful stress from
work-related problems. survey of African-American men and women found that
respondents who were more religious reported a greater sense of control than
less religious respondents. This greater sense of control was, in turn,
correlated with decreased distress.
Of
the studies cited in Byron Johnson’s extensive literature review, 65 percent
concluded that religious commitment and practice lead to increased self-esteem,
while more than 80 percent indicated that religious practice correlates with
increased social support.
Membership
in a religious community can enhance coping skills. One study found that people
were much more inclined to use positive coping responses when they received
spiritual support from fellow church members. When like-minded individuals and
families joined together in prayer, mutual support, or religious practice, they
viewed their circumstances with spiritual significance: not only mundane daily
affairs, but also major life traumas. In a study of high-school students from
West Virginia, the “ego strengths of hope, will, purpose, fidelity, love, and
care” increased as the students lived out their religious beliefs more
intently.
Thus,
involvement in religious practice, religious organizations, and religious
communities tends to lead to favorable self-image and to foster the development
of faith, hope, benevolence, and a belief in divine grace as personal spiritual
resources.
Depression and Suicide: Both public and private religious practice protect
against depression. People who are frequently involved in religious activities
and highly value their religious faith are at a reduced risk for depression, according
to a review of more than 100 studies. This review also found that 87 percent of
the studies surveyed concluded that religious practice correlates with reduced
incidence of suicide. Levels of depression were also lower for those who
participated in religious services than they were for those who only prayed on
their own.
Studies
have found that adolescents who frequently attend religious services and have a
high level of spiritual support from others in their community have the lowest
levels of depression. a lack of religious affiliation correlates with an
increased risk of suicide. Immigrant youth likewise enjoy the benefits of a
higher level of general well-being when they attend religious services frequently.
Religion
and Physical Health: Greater longevity is consistently and significantly
related to higher levels of religious practice and involvement, regardless of
the sex, race, education, or health history of those studied. For example,
those who are religiously involved live an average of seven years longer than
those who are not. This gap is as great as that between non-smokers and those
who smoke a pack of cigarettes a day. Predicting the life spans of 20-year-olds
who are religiously involved compared with those who are not yields differences
in life span as great as those between women and men and between whites and
blacks. Among African-Americans, the longevity benefit is still greater. The
average life span of religious blacks is 14 years longer than that of their
nonreligious peers.
Studies
on the effects of religious practice on annual death rates of various
populations found that, after controlling for variables such as race, death
rates for an age cohort (e.g., men age 59 or women age 71) were reduced by 28
percent to 46 percent (e.g., from 100 deaths per year to 72 deaths to 54
deaths) for that age group.
An
earlier review of 250 epidemiological health research studies found a reduced
risk of colitis, different types of cancer, and untimely death among people
with higher levels of religious commitment. Conversely, at any age, those who
did not attend religious services had higher risks of dying from cirrhosis of
the liver, emphysema, arteriosclerosis, and other cardiovascular diseases and
were more likely to commit suicide, according to an even earlier review by
faculty of the John Hopkins University School of Public Health. The most
significant pathway by which religious practice delivers these longevity
benefits is a lifestyle that reduces the risk of mortality from infectious diseases
and diabetes by encouraging a support network among family and friends that
helps to maintain a pattern of regimented care.
Not
only a person’s own religious practice, but also parents’ religious practice
affects personal health. Adolescents whose mothers attended religious services
at least weekly displayed better health, greater pro skills, and higher overall
satisfaction with their lives, regardless of race, gender, income, or family
structure, according to a study of public school children in Baltimore.
Religion and Educational Attainment: Because education is important for all citizens and
the government invests heavily in public schooling, any factor that promotes
academic achievement is important to the common good. Academic expectations, level
of education attained, school attendance, and academic performance are all
positively affected by religious practice. In two literature reviews conducted
by Mark Regnerus of the University of Texas at Austin,educational attainment
aspirations and math and reading scores correlated positively with more
frequent religious practice.
Parents’
religious practice also counts. The greater the parents’ religious involvement,
the more likely they will have higher educational expectations of their
children and will communicate with their children regarding schooling. Their
children will be more likely to pursue advanced courses, spend more time on
homework, establish friendships with academically oriented peers, avoid cutting
classes, and successfully complete their degrees.
Students
in religiously affiliated schools tend to exhibit a high level of academic
achievement than their peers in secular schools, particularly in low-income
urban neighborhoods. For example, studies continue to find that inner-city
students in public schools lag behind in educational achievement, compared with
students in Catholic schools.
The
cultural values of a religious community are also a significant pathway to
academic success for adolescents. For example, to earn a high school diploma or
take advanced math courses, children must plan for the future and structure
their activities accordingly. Religious communities typically invest in forming
an ethic of such discipline and persistence. A recent study confirms both this
indirect contribution of religious community values and the direct influence of
the students’ own religious activities in promoting academic achievement.
Earlier
studies found this same relationship between religious practice and academic discipline.
For example, in 1985 the groundbreaking work of Richard Freeman of Harvard
University revealed that attendance at religious services and activities
positively affected inner-city youth school attendance, work activity, and
allocation of time-all of which were further linked to a decreased likelihood
of engaging in deviant activities. For instance, youth who frequently attended
religious services were five times less likely to skip school, compared with
peers who seldom or never attended education and Disadvantaged Youth. For youth
in impoverished neighborhoods, religious attendance made the greatest
difference in academic achievement prospects, according to research in 2001 by
Regnerus. As rates of unemployment, poverty, and female-headed households grew
in a neighborhood, the impact of a student’s level of religious practice on
academic progress became even stronger.
Regnerus
posits that churches uniquely provide “functional communities” for the poor
that reinforce parental support networks, control, and norms in environments of
disadvantage and dysfunction. In these neighborhoods, families are most likely
to build pathways to success for their children when they closely monitor them
and when they develop ties to local churches that expose their children to
positive role models. Youth in high-risk neighborhoods who regularly attend
religious services progress at least as satisfactorily as their peers in
low-risk, middle-class neighborhoods:
Regnerus
attendance was found to serve as a protective mechanism in high-risk communities
in a way that it does not in low-risk ones, stimulating educational resilience
in the lives of at-risk youth. We argue that adolescents’ participation in
religious communities-which often constitute the key sources of neighborhood
developmental resources-reinforces messages about working hard and staying out
of trouble, orients them toward a positive future, and builds a transferable
skill set of commitments and routines.
Regnerus
goes on to suggest that religious affiliation had a positive impact on
educational attainment for African-Americans residing in a high-risk
neighborhood, even when controlling for family structure, although its effect
was strongest for youth living in two-parent families. The role of Religion in
building relationships and habits of hard work ‘reinforce conventional (as
opposed to alternate or illegal) orientation to success and achievement.” Youth
religious affiliation in combination with religious families and friends serves
to integrate youth into the broader society and shapes their aspirations for
education and achievement.
Religion and Community; Religious practice benefits not only individuals, but
also communities. Religiously active men and women are often more sensitive to
others, more likely to serve and give to those in need, and more likely to be
productive members of their communities.
Compassion and Charity: Religious practice is linked to greater generosity in
charitable giving. In extensive research documenting the relationship between
Religion and philanthropy, Arthur Brooks of Syracuse University demonstrated
that religious practice correlates with a higher rate of care and concern for
others. Compared with peers with no religious affiliation, religious
respondents were 15 percent more likely to report having tender, concerned
feelings for the disadvantaged. This gap was reduced by only 2 percent when the
effects of education, income, marital status, sex, race, and age were taken
into account.
The
correlation between Religion and increased charitable giving crosses
ideological boundaries. When Brooks divided the survey population into
quadrants of politically conservative, liberal, secular, and religious
respondents, he found that the impact of Religion on compassion applied
regardless of the political perspective. Religious conservatives were 6 percent
more likely to be concerned about the disadvantaged than were secular liberals,
while religious liberals were 24 percentage points more likely to express such
feelings of compassion than were secular conservatives.
Among
the general survey population, religious individuals were 40 percent more
likely than their secular counterparts to give money to charities and more than
twice as likely to volunteer. Among those who felt compassion for the
disadvantaged, religious respondents were 23 percentage points more likely to
donate to charities at least yearly and 32 percentage points more likely to
donate monthly than were their secular counterparts. They were 34 percentage
points more likely to volunteer at least yearly and 22 percentage points more
likely to volunteer monthly.
Regnerus
and his colleagues found similar correlations between religious adherents and
charitable giving in an analysis of the 1996 Pew survey on religious identity
and influence. Individuals with a religious affiliation were 30 percent more
likely to donate to organizations assisting the poor when com with their
secular counterparts. The impact of religious practice on formal charity had
additional significance for community cohesion. Individuals who gave to
charitable organizations were 21 percentage points more likely to give
informally (e.g., to family and friends). Ram Cnaan of the University of
Pennsylvania found that congregations as communities were almost universally
involved in collective charitable outreach. In an extensive survey of religious
institutions in Philadelphia, Cnaan found that 91 percent of the congregations
surveyed had at least one community program that supplied goods ai services to
those in need, including food pantries, prison ministries, summer camps, and
substance abuse prevention programs. He estimated the replacement value of the
services provided by congregations in Philadelphia to be $228 million a year in
the late 1990s.
Violent crime: Just as the stable marriage of parents is powerful in
preventing crime, so too is the practice of religion. A review of the
literature on Religion and crime suggests that, compared with less religious
counterparts, religiously involved individuals are less likely to carry or use
weapons, fight, or exhibit violent behavior.At the metropolitan level of
analysis, areas with high rates of congregational Membership and areas with
high levels of religious homogeneity tend to have lower homicide and suicide
rates than other metropolitan areas. Similarly, at the state level of analysis,
states with more religious populations tend to have fewer homicides and fewer
suicides.
Immigrant Assimilation: Religion plays a role in helping immigrants to adjust
to their new homeland. In research on the role of the ethnic church in the
social adjustment of Vietnamese adolescents, including their educational
success, regular religious attendance was found to increase the likelihood that
youth would attend after-school classes, as well as the likelihood that they
would retain their ethnic cohesion. Even after controlling for other variables,
these activities and religious service attendance correlated with better
grades, avoidance of substance abuse, and the importance attached to attending
college-all of which aided their successful integration into American society.
Thus, religious practice was a significant bridge from their culture of origin
to success in their new homeland.
Religion and At-Risk Youth: Even against the odds, in neighborhoods of disorder
and poverty, religious practice serves as a significant buffer against drug
abuse and juvenile delinquency. A study of 2,358 young black males from
impoverished inner-city Chicago and Philadelphia found that a high level of
religious attendance was associated with a 46 percent reduction in the
likelihood of using drugs, a 57 percent reduction in the probability of dealing
drugs, and a 39 percent decrease in the likelihood of committing a crime that
was not drug-related. Thus, religious attendance was associated with direct
decreases in both minor and major forms of crime and deviance to an extent
unrivalled by government welfare programs. The effect of Religion is not solely
a matter of external controls that curb adolescents risky behavior. Rather,
religious attendance also promotes self-control, a positive allocation of time,
attendance at school, and engagement in work. addition, youth religious
practice is linked to a decreased likelihood of associating with delinquent
peers-a significant factor in youth crime.
Drug Use in Inner-City Neighborhood: While religious practice appears to have a general
restraining effect on the likelihood of using drugs, this effect appears to be
especially strong for adolescents living in higher-risk neighborhoods, where
increased religious practice coincides with substantially decreased drug use
African-American youth living in impoverished urban neighborhoods who attended
religious services at least weekly were half as likely to use illicit drugs as
those who never attended. Furthermore, an analysis of national longitudinal
data indicates that religious youth from low-income neighborhoods are not only
less likely than non-religious neighborhood peers to use illegal drugs, but
also less likely than peers in ‘good’ neighborhoods who have low levels of
religious commitment, In preventing drug abuse, religious practice trumps
socioeconomic disadvantage.
Juvenile Delinquency: In at-risk, destabilized communities, religious
practice was found to be a buffer against youth crime in the same way that it
reduced the likelihood of substance abuse among adolescents. Even in
communities where there are no strong social controls against delinquent
behavior, religious commitment and involvement protects youth from antisocial
behavior-both minor and serious. In the Add Health Survey, a major national
survey of adolescents, a 6 percent reduction in delinquency was associated with
a one-point increase on an index that combined adolescents’ frequency of
religious service with their rating of the importance of religion.
Mothers’
religious practice is also an influence in reducing the likelihood that
children will become delinquent. Each unit increase in a mother’s religious
practice is associated with a 9 percent decline in her child’s delinquency. The
adolescents at lowest risk for delinquency typically have highly religious
mothers and are themselves highly religious. Even in cases in which young
people have become involved in deviant behavior, specific types of religious
activity can help to steer them back on the right course and away from further
criminal activity. In addition, evidence indicates that religious involvement
during adolescence has a cumulative effect and thus may significantly reduce
the likelihood that a young person will commit crimes in adulthood.
Negative Outcomes: The vast majority of the studies reviewed give
evidence of numerous societal benefits of religious belief and practice.
However, relatively few studies indicate some unintended negative outcomes.
Religion and Sexual Behavior: Although frequent religious attendance is highly
correlated with less sexual activity among those who are not married, some
religiously observant individuals do become sexually active. These individuals
tend to use contraception less and thus do not have the protection of
abstinence or barriers to prevent pregnancy or infection. Among adolescent
males from divorced families, there are indications of a positive correlation
between frequent church attendance and an increased number of sexual partners.
This relationship, however, does not appear among female adolescents from
divorced families.