By Charnicia E. Huggins

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Adolescents with strong religious beliefs are less likely to engage in substance use and abuse, according to new study results.

``Alcoholism, in addition to being a biological disorder, is a spiritual disorder,'' lead author Dr. Lisa Miller told Reuters Health. ``Adolescents who claim to have a personal relationship with the Divine are only half as likely to become alcoholics or drug addicts, or for that matter even to try contraband drugs (marijuana and cocaine),'' she explained.

``This is particularly important because onset of alcoholism and drug addiction usually occurs in adolescents,'' Miller stressed.

In an attempt to replicate findings from a previous study on adults, Miller and colleagues at Columbia University in New York conducted a study using survey data from 676 youth aged 15 to 19, to determine the relationship between their religiosity and substance use.

The authors were specifically concerned with personal devotion, personal conservatism, and institutional conservatism defined as ``representing an active personal relationship with the Divine,...representing a personal choice to teach and adhere closely to creed, in some cases initiated through a 'born-again' experience,...(and) as the degree of fundamentalism in a religious denomination.''

Study results, published in the September issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, show that individuals with a higher degree of personal devotion, personal conservatism, and institutional conservatism were less likely to engage in alcohol consumption. The researchers note that this correlation was higher in the present study of adolescents than it was in previous adult studies.

``This is the first study to show that personal spirituality strongly protects against ever developing alcoholism or drug abuse,'' Miller pointed out.

Teenagers who had an active, personal relationship with a 'Higher Power' and were of a fundamentalist denomination were found to be less likely to engage in marijuana or cocaine use, the investigators found.

Similarly, these two variables--personal devotion and institutional conservatism--were also inversely associated with substance dependence or abuse.

``The findings show that a personal sense of spirituality helps adolescents avoid alcohol and drug use and abuse,'' Miller stated. ``Unlike adults in (Alcoholics Anonymous), adolescents in this study were shown not to be helped by a rigid or forced adherence to religion (termed 'personal conservatism'),'' she explained.

``Spirituality (defined by hunger for meaning, communion and transcendence), whether within or without of religion, is the most central baring in an adolescent's life,'' Miller emphasized. ''It cannot be ignored by parents, or the adolescent will go 'shopping' for meaning, communion and transcendence,'' she advised.

``Ideally the adolescent will find a constructive form of affiliation or system of meaning. However, often this is not the case and the search ends in drugs, alcohol or other forms of destruction,'' she said.

``In light of the findings of this study, adolescents at high risk (such as those already using substances) might be protected from substance dependence or abuse if they engage with a Higher Power or become involved in a religious community,'' the study authors conclude.

(From Yahoo)