“Every Sinner Has a Future”: Religiosity, Future Orientation, Self-Control, and Marijuana Use

Scott A Desmond

doi:10.3390/rel13020168

Abstract

Based on previous research, I hypothesize that religious adolescents living in the United States are more likely to have a future orientation (i.e., they are more likely to think about the future), which in turn contributes to their greater self-control. I also hypothesize that a future orientation and self-control mediate the effect of religious service attendance and importance of religion on adolescent marijuana use. Based on the second wave of the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR), I find partial support for these hypotheses. Adolescents who believe that religion is important are more likely to think about the future, and adolescents who attend religious services frequently are less likely to use marijuana. Contrary to expectations, however, adolescents who think more about the future have lower self-control and thinking about the future and self-control do not explain the relationship between religious service attendance and marijuana use. The results also suggest that adolescents who identify as spiritual but not religious have lower self-control, and use marijuana more frequently compared to adolescents who do not identify as spiritual but not religious.

Highlights

An abundance of research suggests that religiosity reduces the likelihood of juvenile delinquency. research often finds a direct effect between religiosity and delinquency, many studies find the relationship between religiosity and delinquency is mediated by other variables, including delinquent friends (Desmond et al 2011; Hoffmann 2014; Johnson et al.2001; Ulmer et al 2012), moral beliefs (Desmond et al 2009; Johnson et al 2001), social bonds (Ulmer et al 2012), and perceived risk (Varma et al 2017)
Do religious adolescents think more about the future than non-religious adolescents? Do religious adolescents have greater self-control than non-religious adolescents? If so, is the greater self-control of religious adolescents explained, in part, by their orientation to the future? are religious adolescents less likely to use marijuana and, if so, is the relationship between religiosity and marijuana use explained by their orientation to the future and/or self-control? The findings have important implications for understanding the connections between religiosity, self-control, future orientation, and adolescent marijuana use
The results suggest that religious service attendance and importance of religion are not significantly related to self-control

Summary

Introduction

Research often finds a direct effect between religiosity and delinquency, many studies find the relationship between religiosity and delinquency is mediated by other variables, including delinquent friends (Desmond et al 2011; Hoffmann 2014; Johnson et al.2001; Ulmer et al 2012), moral beliefs (Desmond et al 2009; Johnson et al 2001), social bonds (Ulmer et al 2012), and perceived risk (Varma et al 2017). Research suggests that religiosity contributes to greater self-control (McCullough and Willoughby 2009; Rounding et al 2012), and self-control partially explains the effect of religiosity on delinquency (Desmond et al.2013; DeWall et al 2014; Pirutinsky 2014; Ulmer et al 2012). Research suggests several mechanisms that may help to explain the relationship between religiosity and delinquency, one concept that has not been fully investigated is time orientation, in particular an orientation toward the future. There are only a few studies that examine the relationship between religiosity and time orientation (Cecelia et al.2017; Lowicki et al 2018; Oner-Ozkan 2007), and even fewer have investigated the relationships between religiosity, time orientation, and delinquency (Holmes and Kim-Spoon 2017)

Methods

Results

Conclusion