“I am spiritual, but not religious”: Does one without the other protect against adolescent health-risk behaviour?

• DOI: 10.1007/s00038-018-1116-4
• Publication Date: 2018-05-29T06:12:31Z
• Authors: Klara Malinakova; Jaroslava Kopcakova; Andrea Madarasova...; Jitse P. van Dijk; Jana Furstova; Michal Kalman; Peter Tavel; Sijmen A. Reijneveld
• Keywords: Attendance; Cross-sectional study

Spirituality and religious attendance (RA) have been suggested to protect against adolescent health-risk behaviour (HRB). The aim of this study was explore the interrelatedness these two concepts in a secular environment.A nationally representative sample (n = 4566, 14.4 ± 1.1 years, 48.8% boys) adolescents participated 2014 Health Behaviour School-aged Children cross-sectional study. RA, spirituality (modified version Spiritual Well-Being Scale), tobacco, alcohol, cannabis drug use prevalence sexual intercourse were measured.RA associated with lower chance weekly smoking, odds ratios (OR) 0.57 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.36-0.88] for RA 0.88 (0.80-0.97) spirituality. Higher also risk drinking [OR (95% CI) 0.91 (0.83-0.995)]. multiplicative interaction less risky four five explored HRB. not significant mediator association HRB.Our findings suggest that high only protects from HRB if combined RA.