Spirituality As A Protective Factor

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Spirituality As A Protective Factor
Daphne Walker-Thoth, M.Ed., MACSAPP Executive
Director Committed Caring Faith
Communities Research Associate
Missouri Institute of Mental Health
University of Missouri - Columbia
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Overview of Workshop

• Explore how faith community can use spiritual
  nurturing to prevent substance abuse and support
  recovery.
• Look at contributions faith organizations make to
  welfare of the community.
• Discuss the role congregations can play in
  positive youth development.

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Risk/Protective Factors
Individual
Peer
Family
Community
School
Protective Factors
Risk Factors
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Risk/Protective Factors
Much of prevention in Missouri is developed
around the risk/protective theory of Drs. J.
David Hawkins and Richard F. Catalano.
Protective factors are situations or
characteristics that may decrease the likelihood
that a child will use or abuse alcohol, tobacco,
or other drugs.
Risk factors are situations or characteristics
that may increase the likelihood that a child
will use or abuse alcohol, tobacco, or other
drugs.
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Examples of Protective Factors

• Strong, positive family bonds
• Parental monitoring of childrens activities and
  peers
• Clear rules of conduct that are consistently
  enforced within the family
• Strong bonds with institutions such as faith
  organizations and schools
• Community rewards for prosocial behavior
• Low prevalence of neighborhood crime

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Examples of Risk Factors

• Chaotic home environments in which parents abuse
  substances
• Lack of parent-child attachment and nurturing
• Failure in school
• Poor coping skills
• Affiliation with peers who display defiant
  behavior
• Early sexual involvement
• Maternal depression
• High prevalence of crime, inadequate housing

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What the Research Tells Us

• Religion has been cited as a deterrent to alcohol
  and drug abuse in children, adolescents, and
  adults.
• Religion reduced the likelihood of initiation and
  abuse by influencing choice of peers and moral
  values, increasing coping skills, and reducing
  the potential for turning to alcohol and other
  drugs during periods of stress.
• (Harold Koenig, et.al Handbook of Religion
  and Health, 2001)

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What the Research Tells Us

• People with strong religious or spiritual beliefs
  are healthier, heal faster, and live longer than
  those without them.
• (National Center on Addiction and Substance
  Abuse, Columbia University, So Help Me God, 2001)
• Religiousness is positively associated with
  prosocial values and behavior. Likewise, it is
  negatively related to suicide ideations and
  attempts, substance abuse, premature sexual
  involvement, and delinquency.
• (Search Institute)

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What the Research Tells Us

• Religious proscriptiveness showed a significant
  impact on high school students use of alcohol.
• Youth ages 12 to 17 with higher levels of
  religiosity were less likely to have used
  cigarettes, alcohol, or illicit drugs in the past
  month than youth with lower levels of
  religiosity.

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What the Research Tells Us

• Adults who never attend religious service are
  almost twice as likely to drink, three times
  likelier to smoke and almost eight times likelier
  to use marijuana than those who attend religious
  services at least weekly.
• (National Center on Addiction and Substance
  Abuse at Columbia University, So Help Me God,
  2001)

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What the Research Tells Us

• Teens who do not consider religious beliefs
  important are almost three times likelier to
  drink, binge drink and smoke, almost four times
  likelier to use marijuana and seven times
  likelier to use illicit drugs than teens who
  strongly believe that religion is important.
• (National Center on Addiction and Substance
  Abuse at Columbia University, So Help Me God,
  2001)

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What the Research Tells Us

• More than 78 of youth (19 million) reported that
  religious beliefs are a very important part of
  their lives, 69 (17 million) reported that
  religious beliefs influence how they make
  decisions.
• In 2002, about 8 million youth (33) aged 12 to
  17 years attended religious services 25 times or
  more in the past year.
• (SAMHSA 2002 National Survey on Drug Use and
  Health)

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What the Research Tells Us

• Among youth, females were more likely than males
  to attend religious services, to report that
  religious beliefs are a very important part of
  their lives, and to indicate that religious
  beliefs influence how they make decisions.
• (SAMHSA 2002 National Survey on Drug Use and
  Health)

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Why Involve Faith Organizations in Substance
Abuse Efforts?

• Faith communities are making major contributions
  to the welfare of their communities through a
  combination of social and spiritual ministries.
• 95 of Americans believe in God and 92 are
  affiliated with a specific religion (CASA, 2001).
• A 2008 Gallup Poll found that 78 of Americans
  believe in God, 15 dont believe in God, but
  believe in a universal spirit or higher power,
  and 6 dont believe in either.

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Why Involve Faith Organizations in Substance
Abuse Efforts?

• In some communities, the faith organization
  represents the hub of the neighborhood. There are
  between some 200,000 and 300,000 congregations in
  the United States. The faith community can be
  powerful and influential.
• Highly religious people are more likely to engage
  in helping behaviors. (Gallup Poll, 2008).
• 9 of 10 Americans identify with some type of
  religion. (Gallup Poll, 2007).

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Why Involve Faith Organizations in Substance
Abuse Efforts?

• Spirituality is a protective factor that helps
  decrease the likelihood that youth will use
  alcohol or other drugs. Faith organizations are
  chief conveyers of spiritual values in many
  communities.
• Within faith organizations is a diversity of
  people of a variety of ages who have the skills
  that can be useful in prevention efforts (e.g.,
  teachers, physicians, youth, members of recovery
  community, coaches, counselors, musicians).

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Why Involve Faith Organizations in Substance
Abuse Efforts?

• In some cultures, people will seek help from the
  church for a variety of social service needs
  before going to a government agency or public
  facility. Clergy are front line workers who get
  invited to places social service agency personnel
  do not.
• Clergy often have the power to mobilize the
  community around a particular issue such as
  substance abuse.
• Congregations are economically independent and
  can advocate for the community without outside
  constraints.

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Why Involve Faith Organizations in Substance
Abuse Efforts?

• Faith communities have the vocabulary, the
  influence, and the knowledge to be a primary
  force in organizing communities to help the
  suffering addict, to prevent the future addict,
  and to support the recovering individual.
• Faith organizations can easily incorporate
  prevention messages into their existing youth or
  older adult ministries or programs. Faith
  organizations can provide youth and older adults
  with positive alternative activities.

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National Congregations Survey Findings 1998

• 57 participate in social service, community
  development or neighborhood organizing projects.
• Housing, clothing,and good projects are more
  common than health, education, domestic violence,
  substance abuse, tutoring/mentoring, or work
  issues. Most common services revolve around
  emergencies and are short-term.
• Although most congregations do some social
  service activity, few of them actually administer
  programs under their own auspices.
• Source Religious Congregations And Welfare
  Reform, Mark Chaves, in Society Jan./Feb. 2001

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National Congregations Survey Findings 1998

• Larger congregations spend more money on social
  service activities than smaller congregations.
• Congregations located in poorer neighborhoods
  tend to do more social service activity than
  congregations in more affluent neighborhoods.
• Congregations with more middle class people do
  more social service activity than those with more
  poor people in them.
• Median congregation in U.S. includes 75 people
  and operates with a budget of 55,000.
  Congregations tend to support very specific,
  time-limited projects.

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What is Spirituality?

• Different from religion
• Has cognitive, experiential, and behavioral
  aspects (search for meaning, purpose and truth in
  life the beliefs and values by which a person
  lives feelings of hope, love, connection, inner
  peace, comfort, and support)
• Has to do with an individuals intuition of being
  part of the universe, of being connected to all
  of life

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What is Spirituality? Some find spirituality
though religion or a personal relationship with
the divine. Others find it through a connection
to nature, through music and the arts, through a
set of values or principles or through the quest
for scientific truth. Spirituality can be a
resource for coping with
life-changing incidents.
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What is Religion?
Organized system of beliefs, ceremonies,
practices, and worship that may center on one God
or a number of deities.

• Belief in deity
• Doctrine of salvation
• Code of conduct
• Use of sacred stories
• Religious rituals

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Hardwired to Connect

• The Commission on Children at Risk released a
  scientific report in 2003 entitled Hardwired to
  Connect The New Scientific Case for
  Authoritative Communities
• The report presents new strategies to reduce the
  currently high numbers of U.S. children who are
  suffering from emotional and behavioral problems
• The report suggests that children are
  biologically hardwired for enduring attachments
  to other people and for moral and spiritual
  meaning

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Hardwired to Connect

• Meeting childrens needs for enduring attachments
  and for moral and spiritual meaning is the best
  way to ensure their healthy development,
  according to the report.
• It recommends development of authoritative
  communities - groups of people who are committed
  to one another over time and who exhibit and are
  able to pass on what it means to be a good person
  (these groups can be families, faith
  organizations, educational and recreational
  groups, etc.)

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Hardwired to Connect

• Primary nurturing relationships influence early
  spiritual development, and spiritual development
  can influence us biologically in the same ways
  that primary nurturing relationships do.
• Spirituality and religiosity can be associated
  with lower levels of stress hormone, more
  optimism, and commitment to helping others.
• Religiosity and spirituality significantly
  influence well-being.
• The human brain appears to be organized to ask
  ultimate questions and seek ultimate answers.

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Ten Spiritual NeedsBy Sandra J. Dailey in
Spiritual Wellness

• Acceptance
• Personal worth identity
• Forgiveness
• Hope
• Love
• Humor
• Faith
• Worship
• Meditation prayer
• Peace

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Helping People Learn to Nurture Their Spirits

• Help them discover their purpose in life by
  tapping into what they are passionate about
• Teach them to pray and meditate
• Help them live one day at a time
• Help them realize that some parts of life can be
  managed and others cannot. Serenity is found when
  people understand and accept what can be
  controlled and what cannot

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Serenity Prayer
God grant me the serenityto accept the thingsI
cannot change,courage to changethe things I
canand the wisdomto know the difference. Autho
r Reinhold Niebuhr
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Helping People Learn to Nurture Their Spirits

• Help them learn to transcend the material world
• Help them feel okay about themselves
• Help them see how they are part of nature
• Show them how to focus their thoughts on triumph
  and hope rather than despair and defeat
• Help them not expect others to bring them
  happiness and make their lives complete
• Help them to count their blessings each day

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Helping People Learn to Nurture Their Spirits

• Participation in church, synagogue, or mosque
  services for those who find this important
• Help them figure out what gives them inner peace,
  comfort, strength, love, and a feeling of
  connection
• Help them figure out what moves them deeply
• Help them learn to be still and listen to inner
  voice
• Help them protect themselves against toxic people

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Helping People Learn to Nurture Their Spirits

• Teach them the importance of laughter
• Teach them to be kind to themselves, not to
  expect to be perfect
• Teach them to rest and relax
• Help them discover where it is that they feel the
  most connected to their higher power
• Help them decide what kind of person they want to
  be rather than focusing on what they want to do
• Healing often comes through the telling of the
  story
• Source Victor Parachin, 8 Serenity Suggestions,
  Vibrant Life, Nov. 1999

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Ten Questions to Help People Find Their True
Calling

• How have my parents expectations affected my
  choices?
• What are my assumptions about money?
• With whom should I surround myself?
• How much power does my environment have over me?
• How have I been trapped by success?
• Am I willing to spend years before letting my
  dream manifest itself?

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Ten Questions to Help People Find Their True
Calling
7. What assumptions did I make when I was young
about what Im good at or not good at? 8. Am I
afraid of looking inward? 9. Am I willing to
spend years looking for an answer? 10. What am I
naturally curious about? From Po Bronsons
book What Should I Do with My Life?
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Role of Spirituality/Religion in Recovery

• Nursing journals report religious patients and
  their families better able to cope with illness
  and less likely to commit suicide
• Prayer and specific beliefs and cognitions about
  God and the meaning of life are particularly
  important in Black womens efforts to cope with
  difficult life events

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Role of Spirituality/Religion in Recovery

• Belief in benevolence of God was related to
  positive mental health outcomes
• For many alcoholics, religion is an important
  part of the recovery process. Many recovering
  individuals acknowledge the role of spirituality
  in their ability to engage in and maintain
  sobriety

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Role of Spirituality/Religion in Recovery

• 95 of Americans believe in God and 92 are
  affiliated with a specific religion (CASA, 2001)
• In a study of recovering and relapsing adults,
  those in recovery for 2 years had greater levels
  of faith and spirituality than those continuing
  to relapse

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Role of Spirituality/Religion in Prevention

• Religious proscriptiveness showed a significant
  impact on high school students use of alcohol
• Spiritual dimensions of programs are increasingly
  being identified as important in fostering
  sustaining positive behavioral change
• Youths strong bonds to family, church, and/or
  peers can serve as protective factors

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Reasons Spirituality/Religion Help in Prevention
Recovery

• Effective at establishing moral order
• Provide opportunities to acquire learned
  competencies
• Provide social and organizational ties
• Faith Matters Race/Ethnicity, Religion and
  Substance Use, Annie E. Casey Foundation, John
  Wallace, Valerie Myers, Esohe R. Osai

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The spiritual life is not a special career,
involving abstraction from the world of things.
It is part of every mans life and until he has
realized it, he is not a complete human
being. Evelyn Underhill