The protective influence of spiritual - Religious lifestyle profiles on tobacco use, alcohol use, and gambling

The costs associated with the use of addictive substances and practices underscore the need for research on protective factors that inhibit use. In this study, the protective influences of various spiritual-religious lifestyle profiles on tobacco smoking, alcohol use, and gambling frequency and expenditures are examined. Among the predominantly Hispanic sample used in the study (N = 249), cluster analysis produced three lifestyle profiles: neither spiritual nor religious, spiritual and religious, and spiritual but not religious. Of these three, the spiritual and religious lifestyle profile exhibited the strongest protective influence across all four dependent measures. Although the exploratory nature of the study precludes definitive recommendations, a number of tentative implications from the findings are drawn.