Abstract
Religiosity and spirituality have been considered to be protective factors of adolescent health-risk behavior (HRB). The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between adolescents’ HRB and their religiosity, taking into account their parents’ faith and their own participation in church activities. A nationally representative sample (n = 13377, 13.5 ± 1.7 years, 49.1% boys) of Czech adolescents participated in the 2018 Health Behavior in School-aged Children cross-sectional study. We measured religious attendance (RA), faith importance (FI) (both of respondents and their parents), participation in church activities and adolescent HRB (tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis use and early sexual intercourse). We found that neither RA nor FI of participants or their parents had a significant effect on adolescents’ HRB. Compared to attending respondents who participate in church activities (AP), non-attending respondents who participate in church activities were more likely to report smoking and early sexual intercourse, with odds ratios (ORs) ranging from 3.14 (1.54–6.39) to 3.82 (1.99–7.35). Compared to AP, non-attending respondents who did not participate in church activities were more likely to report early sexual intercourse, with OR = 1.90 (1.14–3.17). Thus, our findings show that RA does not protect adolescents from HRB; they suggest that RA protects adolescents from HRB only in combination with participation in church activities.
Highlights
Adolescent health-risk behavior (HRB) is the subject of many research studies worldwide.Research shows that it may be a predictor of adult risk behavior [1,2,3,4,5]
Regarding religious attendance (RA) and importance of faith in parents, 6% of respondents reported that their mothers attended church at least once a week (5.2% for fathers), and 20% of adolescents reported faith is important for their mothers
We found that religious attendance or the importance of faith in the personal life of adolescents alone have almost no significant impact on their health-risk behavior
Summary
Adolescent health-risk behavior (HRB) is the subject of many research studies worldwide.Research shows that it may be a predictor of adult risk behavior [1,2,3,4,5]. Adolescent health-risk behavior (HRB) is the subject of many research studies worldwide. The numbers in the Czech Republic are decreasing, according to data from the Czech 2018 Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC) study, adolescents still have a high prevalence of tobacco and marijuana use: 41% of fifteen-years old girls and 37% of fifteen-years old boys have smoked tobacco at least once in their lives, and 21% of girls and 16% of boys in this age group have smoked during the last. 76% of girls and about the same number of boys have drunk alcohol [6] Because of these high numbers based on the data from 45 countries
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