The Negative Relationship between Religiosity and Substance Use

The negative association between religiosity and substance abuse is well established in previous literature. Scholarly research continues to find support for both intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity functioning as protective factors against substance abuse with intrinsic religiosity’s negative correlation with substance use being more established in literature than extrinsic religiosity. This study focuses on the relationship between college student intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity, measured by the Intrinsic/Extrinsic Religiosity Scale and substance use, measured by the Texas Christian University Drug Screen-5 (TCUDS-5). The Intrinsic/Extrinsic Religiosity Scale and the TCUDS-5 are well established instruments with historically high internal consistency. We hypothesized that there was a negative correlation between religiosity scores and substance use scores among our population. Additionally, we hypothesized that intrinsic religiosity would have a stronger relationship with substance use than extrinsic religiosity would. In order to test our hypothesis, a survey was administered to undergraduate students at a university in the southeast. After cleaning the data, our total sample consisted of 386 students. Of those surveyed, 256 are female, 127 are male, and 1 classified other. The majority of the population identified as White (n = 328), followed by Black (n = 28), Hispanic (n = 23), and Asian, Native American/Pacific Islander, Multiracial, or Other (n = 7). All students received extra credit as an incentive to voluntarily complete a larger battery of measures related to habits and addiction. However, this analysis will only include the Intrinsic/Extrinsic Religiosity Scale (M = 12.019, SD = 5.55) and the TCUDS-5 (M = 0.762, SD = 2.004). A Pearson correlation was completed to determine whether there was a statistically significant relationship between religiosity and substance use in college students. All analyses were conducted using JASP. Results supported our hypothesis with findings indicating evidence for a statistically significant negative correlation between intrinsic religiosity and substance abuse (r = -.142, p = .005). Our hypothesis that extrinsic religiosity will not be as strongly related to substance use as intrinsic religiosity was supported for social extrinsic religiosity (r = -.121, p =.018), but not supported for personal extrinsic religiosity measure (r = -.15, p =.002). The results of this study contribute to the converging evidence that intrinsic religiosity is inversely related to substance use and could serve as a protective factor against problematic substance use. Those who have internalized their faith may rely on faith to cope with stress rather than use substances or restrict use due to religious beliefs. Thus, this study provides potential support for the theory that religiosity is a protective factor against substance use disorders. Future research should investigate the longitudinal impact of religiosity on substance use in college students and other populations