| This study explored the relationship between spirituality and prayer as coping skills for substance use refusal in older adolescents. Spirituality is a common aspect of substance use treatment and recovery, though little has been explored on the use of spirituality and prayer as a tool to refuse the offer of substances. A sample of 331 college freshmen were given an online questionnaire assessing substance use, temptation coping, religious coping, and spirituality. The majority of participants were White (70%) and female (76%). On average, individuals described themselves as "somewhat strong" spiritually and prayed an average of "once per week." Results show that many factors influence substance use in older adolescence. Adolescents who report higher levels of spiritual practices have lower rates of substance use. Also, those who sign a statement at their university agreeing to not use any alcohol or drugs also had lower rates of use than those who did not sign a statement at their university. Females used drugs at lower rates than males; while there were no gender differences in alcohol use. However, gender differences in substance use disappeared when either temptation coping or spiritual coping skills were utilized. Temptation coping and spiritual coping skills led to lower levels of substance use, though only temptation coping predicted abstinence, R2 = .20, adjusted R2 = .20, F(2, 327) = 40.74, p < .01. Hierarchical multiple regression showed that the combination of spirituality and using spirituality and prayer as a way to cope led to lower levels of substance use than being spiritual but not using spirituality or prayer to cope, R2 change = .04, F(1, 297) = 12.85, p < .01. This study suggests that the combination of prayer, spirituality, and temptation coping skills leads to higher rates of abstinence among college freshmen; therefore, adding a spiritual component to prevention and treatment programs for late adolescent substance use problems may be indicated. This study also suggests that nurturing and helping an adolescent to develop their sense of spirituality as a coping skill may increase the chances of an individual being able to decline alcohol and other drugs. |
