Compared with peers in a control group and those in safe-sex and comprehensive sex education programs, youths in an abstinence education intervention were less likely to become sexually active within a subsequent two-year period and, if sexually active, were less likely to have had intercourse within the three months preceding a two-year follow-up survey.
Among teenage girls aged 15 to 19, compared to those living with two biological or adoptive parents, those living with one biological, adoptive, or step parent had, on average, 56 percent higher odds, and those with a single biological parent had 50 percent higher odds, and those in other living arrangements had 65 percent higher odds of having had sexual experience. This was true controlling for adolescents’ age, race/ethnicity, nativity status, early age at menarche, maternal employment status, mother’s teen parenthood status, and parental education.
Married young adults who attended church services at least weekly during adolescence were eight times more likely to abstain from sexual activity before marriage than peers who never attended and nearly three times as likely to be abstinent until marriage than peers who less frequently attended church services. In addition, they were less likely than non-attenders or less frequent attenders to have sex with someone other than their future spouse.
Compared with peers in intact families, children in blended or step families tended to have significantly lower GPAs and less positive engagement with school tasks and relationships.
Teens who were exposed to high levels of sexual content on television were twice as likely to become pregnant during a three-year period than peers who had lower levels of exposure to sexual content.
The more often parents watched television with their teens and the more they limited television viewing, the less likely adolescents were to have sex.
In a sample of youths from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health, those living in intact families were less likely to engage in delinquency than peers in single-parent families and those in other family forms (excluding those in stepfamilies).
Adolescents whose parents communicated with them more about reasons to avoid sexual activity were less likely to anticipate cohabiting before marriage than peers whose parents did not talk with them about sexual matters.
Compared with peers who had lower levels of religiosity as pre-teens (measured by participation in religious activities, studies, services, and importance ascribed to religion), those with higher levels of pre-teen religiosity tended to exhibit higher levels of religiosity as adolescents and young adults and a lower likelihood of engaging in substance abuse.
Compared with peers with lower levels of religiosity (in terms of church attendance, importance assigned to religion and frequency of prayer), adolescents who were more religious exhibited higher levels of self control and were less likely to use alcohol. (The effect of religiosity on substance use was mediated somewhat by levels of self control.)
Desmond, Scott A. and Bader, Christopher D.
2007
full details
Compared with other peers, youths who were more religious (in terms of church attendance, the importance they assigned to religion, and prayer)exhibited more self control and were less likely to use marijuana. (The effect of religiosity on substance use was mediated somewhat by levels of self control.)
Desmond, Scott A. and Bader, Christopher D.
2007
full details
Compared with other peers, youths who said religion was important in their lives and/or attended religious services frequently were less likely to smoke, use alcohol, be truant, be sexually active, use marijuana, or report feelings of depression, even when controlling for family background variables and self-esteem.
Youths whose parents talked to them about what is right and wrong in sexual behavior were significantly more likely to be abstinent than peers whose parents did not.
Compared with peers whose parents did not set clear rules, youths whose parents did were about one-half as likely to have had sexual intercourse.
Compared to peers from intact families, individuals whose parents divorced while they were growing up and had contact with their nonresident parents at least once a month in the year following the divorce were 46 percent more likely to have used marijuana in the year prior to the survey; and individuals whose parents divorced but had no contact with their nonresident parents in the year following the divorce were 30 percent more likely to have used marijuana in the year prior to the survey. (Although, individuals who grew up in intact families were no more or less likely to use marijuana compared to peers whose parents divorced and had at least weekly contact with the nonresident parent in the year following the divorce as well as those who had less than monthly contact with their nonresident parent.) This was true taking into account respondents’ race/ethnicity, gender, age, mother’s education, childhood religious affiliation, whether or not the respondent was born in the U.S, whether or not his/her mother or father was an alcoholic, whether or not a family member had a library card growing up, and respondents’ own educational expectation at age 18.
Compared to peers from intact families, individuals whose parents divorced while growing up and had at least weekly contact with their nonresident parents the year following the divorce were 58 percent more likely to have used cocaine in the year prior the survey; and individuals whose parents divorced and had at least monthly contact with their nonresident parents in the year following the divorce were 63 percent more likely to have used cocaine in the year prior to the survey. This was true taking into account respondents’ race/ethnicity, gender, age, childhood religious affiliation, educational expectation at age 18, maternal educational attainment, alcoholism in the family, whether or not respondents were born in the U.S, and whether or not a family member had a library card growing up.
Among kindergarten-aged children of married parents and of parents in cohabiting relationships, those of married biological-parents averaged higher scores on math achievement and general knowledge tests than peers in married stepfamilies, cohabiting biological-parent families, and cohabiting stepfamilies, controlling for parental education, family income and poverty status. Controlling for the duration of parent’s relationship, residential mobility, maternal characteristics, and parenting practices, the differences between achievement test scores of children in married biological parent families and peers in other three family structures no longer appeared significant.
Children in families with their married, biological parents had, on average, higher reading achievement scores than peers living with cohabiting parents or in stepfamilies, even when parents’ education, family income and poverty status are taken into account When the duration of parents’ relationship, residential mobility, maternal characteristics, and parenting practices are taken into account, the gap in average reading scores remained between children who lived with their biological parents and those who lived with cohabiting parents.
The association of adolescents' religiosity with a decreased likelihood of using alcohol and/or marijuana is even stronger when the school environment is characterized by a high level of religiosity.
The higher the level of religiosity in a school the lower the likelihood that students will use marijuana, even when controlling for individual student's religiosity (measured by church attendance).
Adolescents who were more religious (i.e. attended church more frequently and assigned a higher importance to religion in their lives) were less likely to smoke cigarettes, engage in binge drinking, and smoke marijuana.
According to teachers' reports, children whose mothers and/or fathers frequently attended church exhibited higher levels of cognitive skills than those whose parents attended church less often.
According to parents' reports, the more frequently parents argued about religion, the lower their children scored in terms of cognitive development.
According to parents' reports, children whose parents had more frequent discussions about religion with them exhibited higher levels of cognitive development.
According to the report of parents, children of parents who more frequently attended religious services had a higher level of cognitive development.
