Self-Declaration of Religiousness and This Variable’s Connections with Indications of Psychoactive Substance Use: Data from Empirical Studies (N=2273)
Self-Declaration of Religiousness and This Variable’s Connections with Indications of Psychoactive Substance Use: Data from Empirical Studies (N=2273)

Summary/Abstract: A steady increase in the use of intoxicants is being confirmed by empirical studies. One of the factors conducive to drug initiation is the rejection of moral norms associated with religious beliefs. The article presents the relations established between the youth’s declared religiousness and their statements on psychoactive drugs and using them. The data were collected through questionnaire surveys carried out on a randomly selected sample of high school students from the Podkarpackie region (n = 2273). The research results suggest that the process of secularisation and relativisation observed among the youth, particularly in the sphere of morality, may weaken critical attitudes towards psychoactive substances, both those legally allowed and those prohibited by law. Moreover, the links between the declared religiousness and such variables as: time spent on the Internet, acquaintances who are drug users, being raised by a single parent or both parents as well as the frequency of conversations between respondents and their parents were established. The connections between these variables are statistically significant, so it can be concluded that these distinguished variables influence the diversity in religiousness stated by participants and consequently the liberalisation of the youth’s attitudes towards drugs.

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