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Adolescent Hard Drug Use by Family Structure and Religious Practice

Family Structure: According to the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health Wave I, children who lived with both biological parents were less inclined to try hard drugs (8.77 percent of adolescents with cohabiting biological parents and 10.88 percent of adolescents with married parents).[1] More than 15 percent of adolescents whose parents were divorced had used hard drugs. Just 8.23 percent of adolescents whose parents never married admitted to ever using hard drugs.     Religious Practice: Only 7.72 percent of students in Grades 7-12 who worshipped at least weekly had ever used hard drugs, whereas 17.99 percent of those who never worshipped admitted to using hard drugs.  In between were those who attended worship service one to three times a month (11.22 percent) and less than once a month (16.22 percent).  The data were taken from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, Waves I. Family Structure and Religious Practice Combined: Only 8.5 percent of adolescent students who lived with both biological parents and worshipped at least monthly had ever tried hard drugs.  By contrast, over 20 percent of adolescent students who worshipped less than monthly and came from broken or reconstituted families had used hard drugs.  In between were those in non-intact families who worshipped at least monthly (9.5 percent) and those who lived in intact families but worshipped less than monthly (14.6 percent).  The data were taken from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.   [1] There is no statistical difference between these two data sets.  ]]>