The Protective Influence of Spiritual-Religious Lifestyle Profiles on Tobacco Use, Alcohol Use, and Gambling

Abstract

The costs associated with the use of addictive substances and practices underscore the need for research on protective factors that inhibit use. In this study, the protective influences of various spiritual-religious lifestyle profiles on tobacco smoking, alcohol use, and gambling frequency and expenditures are examined. Among the predominantly Hispanic sample used in the study (N = 249), cluster analysis produced three lifestyle profiles: neither spiritual nor religious, spiritual and religious, and spiritual but not religious. Of these three, the spiritual and religious lifestyle profile exhibited the strongest protective influence across all four dependent measures. Although the exploratory nature of the study precludes definitive recommendations, a number of tentative implications from the findings are drawn. KEY WORDS: addiction; protective factors; religion; spirituality; substance use ********** Addictive substances and practices are a major social problem (Frances, Miller, & Mack, 2005).The costs of tobacco (Single, 2003; Sloan, Ostermann, Conover, Taylor, & Picone, 2004) and alcohol use (Kinney, 2006; Simon, Patel, & Sleed, 2005) alone exceed $100 billion annually in health care outlays, law enforcement expenditures, and lost productivity. Although the costs of gambling are appreciably less, they still amount to $5 billion annually (Cunningham, 2005). In addition to the economic costs, the intangible personal costs are also substantial. Although quantifying quality-of-life costs is difficult, they are just as real as monetary losses to those who experience them. The early onset of cancer, alcohol-related driving injuries, and excessive gambling losses--to cite some examples--typically cause substantial pain and suffering. Also, more subtle quality-of-fife losses exist. For instance, among a representative sample of noninstitutionalized adults, current smokers were more likely to report poor mental health and activity limitations than were nonsmokers (Mody & Smith, 2006). To help alleviate this problem, attempts have been made to identify protective factors (Haight, 1998; Smith, 2006). Protective factors facilitate positive outcomes by buffering individuals from constructs that place them at risk to engage in addictive substances and practices (Fraser, Richman, & Galinsky, 1999; Little, Axford, & Morpeth, 2004; Ruffolo, Sarri, & Goodkind, 2004; Waller, Okamoto, Miles, & Hurdle, 2003). Hence, they decrease the likelihood that individuals will participate in harmful activities. Religion is one of the protective factors identified as facilitating positive outcomes (Corcoran & Nichols-Casebot, 2004). At the turn of the century, nearly 100 studies indicated that religion inhibits substance use (Koenig, McCullough, & Larson, 2001). More recent work continues to confirm this relationship (Jessor, Costa, Krueger, & Turbin, 2006; Kogan, Luo, Murry, & Brody, 2005; Piko & Fitzpatrick, 2004; Wallace, Brown, Bachman, & Laveist, 2003). In other words, various measures of religion, such as attendance at religious services, are generally inversely related to the use of tobacco, alcohol, and other addictive substances. SPIRITUAL--RELIGIOUS LIFESTYLE PROFILES Traditionally, the terms spirituality and religion have been used interchangeably (Hill & Pargament, 2003). Recently, however, scholars have tended to differentiate them (Sahlein, 2002; Sheridan, 2004). More specifically, spirituality and religion are increasingly defined as distinct but overlapping constructs (Derezotes, 2006; Miller & Thoresen, 2003). Spirituality is commonly defined in individual, existential, or relational terms, typically incorporating some reference to the sacred or the transcendent (Hodge, 2005). Conversely, religion tends to be conceptualized in communal, organizational, or structural terms (Canda & Furman, 1999). …