Religious Beliefs Against Smoking Among Black and White Urban Youth
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This study explores the relation of religiosity to cigarette smoking in a sample of 4776 Black versus White adolescents. Findings show that Black adolescents have significantly stronger religious beliefs against smoking than do White students. Further, teens with strong or very strong religious beliefs are less likely to have smoked. The protective effect of religious beliefs against smoking was stronger for Whites than for Blacks. These findings suggest that efforts in the Black religious community to prevent cigarette smoking have been somewhat successful. Similar efforts in the White community might help stem the tide of tobacco use among White teens.
KeywordsReligiosity Religious beliefs Smoking Tobacco Adolescents
The study was supported by National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Grant HL50723 and Centers of Excellence Grant awarded by the State of Tennessee to the Department of Psychology, University of Memphis. The research was approved by The University of Memphis’ Internal Review Board.
Compliance with Ethical Standards
Conflict of interest
The authors declare they have no potential conflicts of interest.
All procedures in this research were performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Informed consent was obtained from parents, and adolescents provided assent to the research
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