A new study from Brigham Young University sociologists claims religious activity in youths can help curb drug use.

Professors Stephen Bahr and John Hoffmann will be releasing an article Oct. 13 in the "Journal of Drug Issues" explaining that a youth's church attendance and prayer can decrease the use of marijuana by 50 percent and similarly decreases binge drinking and smoking.

"The question is whether my individual religiosity affects whether or not I'll use drugs," Bahr said.

The researchers used two separate surveys to determine the effects of teenage religiosity. One survey used was the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health while the other was a survey the researchers formulated and employed in Utah schools. For Bahr and Hoffmann's assessment of religiosity, they asked students how often they attend church and how important religion was to them.

Bahr said some researchers in the past have believed that religious communities can affect delinquent behaviors like drug use, but the faith of an individual teenager would make no difference. In the BYU research, Bahr said the results of the two surveys showed drug use was affected by the individual's feelings toward faith.

"It significantly reduces it," he said.

Hoffmann said studies have been done for years on the factors in drug use as well as the effect of religious faith on teens, but not many studies have been done combining the two. Hoffmann said a major focus in his study was to see how individual religiosity affects the peer influence to use drugs. Various studies have researched what factors are most important to drug use, including family, peers and friends.

"Peers or friends are actually the most influential," he said.

Studies have shown family relationships can dampen the effect of peers on drug use, but Bahr and Hoffmann hypothesized individual religiosity would have more of a dampening effect.

"It was a pretty strong effect, from what we could tell," he said.

While the BYU researchers formulated the questions for the survey in Utah schools, they had nothing to do with the national survey and used only the results of similar questions. Hoffmann said the two surveys had similar questions regarding religion, but he was surprised at how similar the results were. Because of the religious demographics in Utah, he said he did not expect the results to match those of the entire country.

"The fact that it was consistent in Utah and nationally was a little bit surprising to me," he said.

Bahr said it is possible that drugs use could actually be affecting religiosity instead of the other way around. People who use drugs may choose different friends or turn away from religion.

"There are often reciprocal relationships between some of these variables," he said.

Although there are multiple ways for the variables to affect each other, Bahr said longitudinal research supports their hypothesis. He said this is only one study and is not the final answer to the question of individual religiosity's effect, but there is strong evidence to show it has positive effects on drug use.

Hoffmann said there are many aspects of individual religiosity that could be studied in the future. It is often hard to tell from survey questions whether teens feel religion is important or if they are being dragged to church by their parents. Some denominations may also influence teens differently because of their core values.

"I think different aspects of religion could be important to look at," he said.