A Longitudinal Analysis of Lagged Relationships between Religiosity and Substance Dependence

Sajida Yasmeen 

Advisor: June P Tangney, PhD, Department of Psychology

Committee Members: Sarah Nowaczyk, Jeffrey Stuewig

Online Location, Online
April 03, 2025, 03:00 PM to 05:00 PM

Abstract:

This dissertation aims to identify the functional relationship between religiosity and substance dependence in a high-risk sample of 508 formerly incarcerated men and women. Religiosity is a multi-faceted construct and could include anything from institutional doctrines associated with the major religions of the world to the belief in supernatural. As such there is a wide range of operationalizations of religiosity and the relationship of religiosity with substance dependence may vary depending on the conceptualization of the construct. Paper #1 utilized exploratory factor analysis (EFA), at two time points of the longitudinal data, to assess a proposed theoretical framework categorizing religiosity into three components: internal experiences, behaviors, and beliefs. Results of EFA provided some support for this theoretical framework at Time 2. Further, components of religiosity were positively associated with concurrently assessed psychological and behavioral adjustment; the relationships to adjustment were consistent across components of religiosity. Next, Paper # 2 examined the longitudinal lagged relationships between these components of religiosity and substance dependence among formerly incarcerated people interviewed at 1 year, 4 years, 7 years, and 10 years post-release. A bivariate dual change score model examined how changes in components of religiosity related with subsequent changes in substance dependence, and vice versa. For each component of religiosity, four models were tested: 1) a baseline model (no lagged pathways), 2) a unidirectional model from religiosity to subsequent substance dependence, 3) a unidirectional model from substance dependence to subsequent religiosity, and 4) the bidirectional model (both lagged pathways). Results indicate that for all components of religion, the baseline model was the best fitting model; there is no relationship between changes in any component of religiosity and subsequent changes in substance dependence, nor vice versa. Important future directions such as replication of findings among clinical and community samples, and separate consideration of illicit and non-illicit substances are discussed.