Parents who want to keep their kids off drugs may want to start taking them to church.
Religious teens are considerably less likely to use marijuana and are less susceptible to peer pressure to smoke and drink, according to a new study.
Researchers from Brigham Young University studied nearly 20,000 teenagers and found the ones that frequently attended church and rated religion as highly important to them were half as likely to smoke marijuana.
"Some may think this is an obvious finding, but research and expert opinion on this issue have not been consistent," study author and BYU sociology professor Stephen Bahr said in a statement. "After we accounted for family and peer characteristics, and regardless of denomination, there was an independent effect that those who were religious were less likely to do drugs, even when their friends were users."
The findings also showed peer pressure was not as effective against the teens who attended church and rated religion as highly important in their lives.
The study is published recently in the Journal of Drug Issues.
The researchers said it was the teens' religiosity, or level of participation in their faith, that had the biggest impact on their likelihood to use drugs.
"Previously, it was thought that if someone grew up in a religious community and went to church, then the community's religious strength would make a difference," Bahr said. "We basically found that this was not the case. Individual religiosity is what makes the difference."
Despite these results, the researchers found that faith was not as effective at preventing the use of illicit drugs, such cocaine and heroine.
They explained this by saying that most teens receive strong messages to discourage illicit drug use, which may not be the case for drinking, smoking and marijuana use, which many religious groups oppose.
