Religiosity, Spirituality and Attendance at Religious Services among Recreational Drug Users: A Sub-Analysis of the Drugnet Survey

This study is a sub-analysis ofthe previously collected cross-sectional DRUGNET survey data. The sample included 1,178 current users of illicit drugs and 389 former users. This study was delimited to U.S. citizens, aged 18 years and older, who completed the DRUGNET survey (n =1,567). DRUGNET was a descriptive online survey of self - reported attitudes and behaviors among a group of adult, self - identified drug users (i.e., not drug abusers). The purpose of the sub-analysis was to explore the importance of religion, spirituality, and religious service attendance in the context of an otherwise normal healthy adult life. Moreover, it also looked into potential patterns of association between aspects of religiosity/spirituality and illicit drug use. The study explored if there was a relationship between the strength of a respondent's spiritual or religious beliefs and the patterns of their recreational drug use. A canonical correlation analysis was conducted using self-rated spirituality, self-rated religiosity, and attendance at services as variables on the left (entered in MANOVA as dependent variables) and self-reported use of six groups of drugs as variables on the right (entered in MANOV A as covariates). One significant function was found, which showed that attending religious services and importance of religion were negatively associated with the use of alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, and hallucinogens. That is, people who reported a higher level of religiosity and who attended religious services were less likely to use these psychoactive drugs.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Public Health

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Department of Public Health

Year

2010

Author dc:creator

• Dhar, Sohini

Contributors dc:contributor

• Dr. Thomas Nicholson (Director), Dr. John B. White, Dr. Grace K. Lartey

• social aspects of drug abuse
• spirituality of drug abusers
• recreational drug use
• illicity drug use and religious practices
• Chemicals and Drugs
• Public Health

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/181

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.wku.edu:theses-1181