Although religion seems to be inversely related to all measures of tobacco use (i.e. lifetime, occasional, and regular use), findings suggest that religion’s primary influence on cigarette use is the negative effect it has on ever use (89). Importance of religion and attendance in worship services are negatively associated with smoking, such that the more religious a teenager perceives him or herself to be, the less likely it is that he or she would smoke (90). Furthermore, private religiosity is protective against initiation of regular smoking among nonsmokers as well as the initiation of experimental smoking, but only when the young person attends religious services or a religious youth group frequently. Meanwhile, public religiosity predicts the reduction and cessation of cigarette use among regular smokers (91). It has been suggested that religiosity may discourage the use of substances through adolescents’ exposure to religious doctrines discouraging the use of substances, which implies that religious individuals may be more likely to hold conservative attitudes towards substance use, such as cigarette use, and will affiliate with peers that are similar to them (92).
