{"id":12960,"date":"2026-10-13T12:24:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T01:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/?p=12960"},"modified":"2026-10-13T12:43:05","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T01:43:05","slug":"faith-as-social-control-and-psychosocial-resource-substance-use-prevention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/faith-as-social-control-and-psychosocial-resource-substance-use-prevention\/","title":{"rendered":"Faith as Social Control and Psychosocial Resource: Substance Use Prevention"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"12960\" class=\"elementor elementor-12960\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-feb5619 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"feb5619\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-4e2b9af0 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"4e2b9af0\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/SpiritualityInResilienceBuildingSubstancePreventionDRR.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12961 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/FaithResilenceSocialControlDRROct25-300x165.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"248\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/FaithResilenceSocialControlDRROct25-300x165.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/FaithResilenceSocialControlDRROct25-768x423.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/FaithResilenceSocialControlDRROct25.jpg 1015w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a>Anthropological and sociological inquiry into religion has long asked whether faith functions as a mechanism of social control capable of shaping deviant behaviour, including substance use and crime. Contemporary public health and criminological evidence, synthesised across meta-analytic, ethnographic, and theoretical literatures, now converges on an answer: religious and spiritual participation exerts a measurable, largely protective influence on substance use trajectories, criminal involvement, and psychological resilience. This synopsis integrates five bodies of evidence \u2014 large-scale longitudinal meta-analysis, faith-community intervention literature, criminological theory on religion and crime, classical sociological theory (Stark and Bainbridge), and psychological-health scholarship on sustainable spirituality \u2014 to construct an evidence-based account of the anthropological function of Christian and broader religious life in drug prevention and behavioural regulation.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-0ed4202 elementor-widget elementor-widget-ucaddon_border_btn_effect\" data-id=\"0ed4202\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"ucaddon_border_btn_effect.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n<!-- start Border Button Effect -->\n\t\t<link id='font-awesome-css' href='https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-content\/plugins\/unlimited-elements-for-elementor-premium\/assets_libraries\/font-awesome6\/fontawesome-all.min.css' type='text\/css' rel='stylesheet' >\n\t\t<link id='font-awesome-4-shim-css' href='https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-content\/plugins\/unlimited-elements-for-elementor-premium\/assets_libraries\/font-awesome6\/fontawesome-v4-shims.min.css' type='text\/css' rel='stylesheet' >\n\n<style>\/* widget: Border Button Effect *\/\n\n#uc_border_btn_effect_elementor_0ed4202 {\n  min-height:1px;\n}\n\n#uc_border_btn_effect_elementor_0ed4202 .ue-btn{\n  justify-content: center;\n  text-align: center;\n  position: relative;\n  text-decoration: none;\n  box-sizing:border-box;\n  outline:none;\n}\n\n#uc_border_btn_effect_elementor_0ed4202 .ue-btn:before,\n#uc_border_btn_effect_elementor_0ed4202 .ue-btn:after{\n  position: absolute;\n  content: \"\";\n}\n\n#uc_border_btn_effect_elementor_0ed4202 .ue-btn:before{\n  border-bottom: 3px solid #000000;\n  border-left: 3px solid #000000;\n  width: 20px;\n  height: 20px;\n  left: -10px;\n  bottom: -10px;\n}\n\n#uc_border_btn_effect_elementor_0ed4202 .ue-btn:after{\n  border-top: 3px solid #000000;\n  border-right: 3px solid #000000;\n  width: 20px;\n  height: 20px;\n  top: -10px;\n  right: -10px;\n}\n\n#uc_border_btn_effect_elementor_0ed4202 .ue-btn:hover:before{\n  width: 100%;\n  height: 100%;\n}\n\n#uc_border_btn_effect_elementor_0ed4202 .ue-btn:hover:after{\n  width: 100%;\n  height: 100%;\n}\n\n\n\n<\/style>\n\n<div id=\"uc_border_btn_effect_elementor_0ed4202\" class=\"ue-btn-wrapper\">\n  <a class=\"ue-btn\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/SpiritualityInResilienceBuildingSubstancePreventionDRR.pdf\"  target='_blank' rel='nofollow' aria-label=\"Read&#x20;More\">\n        Read More\n  <\/a>\n<\/div>\n<!-- end Border Button Effect -->\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anthropological and sociological inquiry into religion has long asked whether faith functions as a mechanism of social control capable of shaping deviant behaviour, including substance use and crime. Contemporary public health and criminological evidence, synthesised across meta-analytic, ethnographic, and theoretical literatures, now converges on an answer: religious and spiritual participation exerts a measurable, largely protective [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12961,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12960"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12968,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12960\/revisions\/12968"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}