Abstract
This study aimed to estimate associations between adolescents’ religiosity and their motivation to start and stop smoking. A school survey was carried out in Midwestern Brazil. Participants were never-smokers (n = 2073) and smokers (n = 116) aged 13–19 who answered a questionnaire. Religiosity was measured with the Duke Religion Index, and motivation with questions based on the Prime Theory of Motivation. Organizational, non-organizational, and intrinsic religiosity were associated with motivation to start smoking among never-smokers. Intrinsic religiosity was associated with smokers’ motivation to quit. Findings indicate the protective role of religiosity in the motivational system that prompts smoking initiation and cessation during adolescence.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alasqah, I., Mahmud, I., East, L., & Usher, K. (2019). A systematic review of the prevalence and risk factors of smoking among Saudi adolescents. Saudi Medical Journal, 40(9), 867–878
Alexander, A. C., Robinson, L. A., Ward, K. D., Farrell, A. S., & Ferkin, A. C. (2016). Religious beliefs against smoking among black and white urban youth. Journal of Religion and Health, 55(6), 1907–1916. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-015-0128-0
Alzyoud, S., Kheirallah, K. A., Ward, K. D., Al-Shdayfat, N. M., & Alzyoud, A. A. (2015). Association of religious commitment and tobacco use among Muslim adolescents. Journal of Religion and Health, 54, 2111–2121. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-014-9921-4
Arrazola, R. A., Ahluwalia, I. B., Pun, E., Quevedo, I. G., Babb, S., & Armour, B. S. (2017). Current tobacco smoking and desire to quit smoking among students aged 13–15 Years — global youth tobacco survey, 61 Countries, 2012–2015. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), 66, 533–537. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6620a3
Brown, J., & West, R. (2013). Theory of addiction. (2nd ed.). John Wiley & Sons.
Duncan, L. R., Pearson, E. S., & Maddison, R. (2018). Smoking prevention in children and adolescents: A systematic review of individualized interventions. Patient Education and Counseling, 101(3), 375–388. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2017.09.011
Ford, J. A., & Hill, T. D. (2012). Religiosity and adolescent substance use: evidence from the national survey on drug use and health. Substance Use & Misuse, 47(7), 787–798. https://doi.org/10.3109/10826084.2012.667489
Francis, J. M., Myers, B., Nkosi, S., Petersen Williams, P., Carney, T., Lombard, C., & Morojele, N. (2019). The prevalence of religiosity and association between religiosity and alcohol use, other drug use, and risky sexual behaviours among grade 8–10 learners in Western Cape, South Africa. PloS One, 14(2), e0211322. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0211322
French, D. C., Purwono, U., Zhao, S., Shen, M., & Eisenberg, N. (2019). Religiosity and effortful control as predictors of Indonesian adolescents’ tobacco and alcohol use: Moderation and mediation. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 29(2), 321–333. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12446
Garrusi, B., & Nakhaee, N. (2012). Religion and smoking: A review of recent literature. The International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, 43(3), 279–292. https://doi.org/10.2190/PM.43.3.g
Hernán, M. A., & Robins, J. M. (2020). Causal Inference: What If. Chapman & Hall/CRC.
Hummel, K., Brown, J., Willemsen, M. C., West, R., & Kotz, D. (2017). External validation of the motivation to stop scale (MTSS): findings from the international tobacco control (ITC) Netherlands survey. The European Journal of Public Health, 27(1), 129–134. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckw105
Hussain, M., Walker, C., & Moon, G. (2019). Smoking and religion: Untangling associations using English survey data. Journal of Religion and Health, 58(6), 2263–2276. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-017-0434-9
Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística. (2012). Censo demográfico 2010: características gerais da população, religião e pessoas com deficiência. Ministério do Planejamento Orçamento e Gestão.
Koenig, H. G. (2018). Religion and mental health: Research and clinical applications. Academic Press.
Koenig, H. G., & Büssing, A. (2010). The duke university religion index (DUREL): A five-item measure for use in epidemiological studies. Religions, 1(1), 78–85. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel1010078
Kotz, D., Brown, J., & West, R. (2013). Predictive validity of the Motivation To Stop Scale (MTSS): a single-item measure of motivation to stop smoking. Drug and alcohol dependence, 128(1–2), 15–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2012.07.012
Liu, J., Zhao, S., Chen, X., Falk, E., & Albarracín, D. (2017). The influence of peer behavior as a function of social and cultural closeness: A meta-analysis of normative influence on adolescent smoking initiation and continuation. Psychological Bulletin, 143(10), 1082. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000113
Lucchetti, G., Peres, M. F. P., Lucchetti, A. L. G., & Koenig, H. G. (2012). Religiosity and tobacco and alcohol use in a Brazilian Shantytown. Substance Use & Misuse, 47(7), 837–846. https://doi.org/10.3109/10826084.2012.673142
Michie, S., Atkins, L., & West, R. (2014). The behaviour change wheel: A guide to designing interventions. Silverback Publishing.
Moreira-Almeida, A., Peres, M. F., Aloe, F., Lotufo Neto, F., & Koenig, H. G. (2008). Portuguese version of duke religious index – DUREL. Archives of Clinical Psychiatry (São Paulo), 35(1), 31–32. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0101-60832008000100006
Nuyts, P. A. W., Kuipers, M. A. G., Willemsen, M. C., & Kunst, A. E. (2018). Trends in age of smoking initiation in the Netherlands: A shift towards older ages? Addiction, 113(3), 524–532. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.14057
Page, R. L., Peltzer, J. N., Burdette, A. M., & Hill, T. D. (2020). Religiosity and health: A holistic biopsychosocial perspective. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 38(1), 89–101. https://doi.org/10.1177/0898010118783502
Rios, L. E., Herval, A. M., Ferreira, R. C., & Freire, M. C. M. (2019). Prevalences of stages of change for smoking cessation in adolescents and associated factors: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Adolescent Health, 64(2), 149–157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2018.09.005
Rios, L. E., & Freire, M. C. M. (2020). Opinion of adolescent school smokers about smoking cessation counselling and treatment in health services: a cross-sectional study, Goiás, Brazil, 2018. Epidemiologia e Serviços de Saúde, 29, e2019604. https://doi.org/10.5123/s1679-49742020000400001
Sanchez, Z. M., Opaleye, E. S., Chaves, T. V., Noto, A. R., & Nappo, S. A. (2011). God forbids or mom disapproves? Religious beliefs that prevent drug use among youth. Journal of Adolescent Research, 26(5), 591–616. https://doi.org/10.1177/0743558411402337
Sartor, C. E., Hipwell, A. E., & Chung, T. (2020). Public and private religious involvement and initiation of alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use in black and white adolescent girls. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 55, 447–456. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-020-01830-y
Textor, J., van der Zander, B., Gilthorpe, M. S., Liśkiewicz, M., & Ellison, G. T. (2016). Robust causal inference using directed acyclic graphs: The R package ‘dagitty.’ International Journal of Epidemiology, 45(6), 1887–1894. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyw341
Vallata, A., O’Loughlin, J., Cengelli, S., & Alla, F. (2021). Predictors of cigarette smoking cessation in adolescents: A systematic review. Journal of Adolescent Health, 68(4), 649–657. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2020.09.025
Wellman, R. J., Dugas, E. N., Dutczak, H., O’Loughlin, E. K., Datta, G. D., Lauzon, B., & O’Loughlin, J. (2016). Predictors of the onset of cigarette smoking: a systematic review of longitudinal population-based studies in youth. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 51(5), 767–778. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2016.04.003
World Health Organization. (2020). Tobacco. Health at a glance: Asia/Pacific 2020. World Health Organization. https://doi.org/10.1787/26b007cd-en
World Health Organization. (2018). Fact sheet: Adolescents: Health risks and solutions. Adolescents and young Adult Health. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/adolescents-health-risks-and-solutions
World Health Organization. (2019). WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic—2019: Offer help to quit tobacco use. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-NMH-PND-2019.5
Funding
This study received funding from the Goiás State Research Support Foundation (FAPEG), Goiás, Brazil (Call for Proposals No. 04/2017), and from the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel/Ministry of Health, Brazil (CAPES/MEC: Funding Code 001).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical Approval
The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee (REC) of the sponsor institution, the Federal University of Goiás (Approval #2142027). Subsequently, it was approved by the REC of the Federal Institute of Goiás, where the data were collected (Approval #2556510).
Informed Consent
Formal authorizations were given by school administrators, and all the participants signed informed consent forms.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rios, L.E., Freire, M.d.M. Religiosity is Associated with Motivation to Start and Stop Smoking Among Adolescent Students in Brazil. J Relig Health 60, 4467–4479 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-021-01269-8
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-021-01269-8