Spiritual/religious life-style profiles and community substance abuse perceptions

This study explored the relationship between various spiritual/religious life-style profiles and community trends in the areas of: alcohol and other drug abuse, physical safety, and in the community or neighborhood as a whole. A cluster analysis yielded three spiritual/religious life-style profiles among the predominantly Hispanic sample (N = 249): spiritual and religious, neither spiritual nor religious, and spiritual but not religious. The latter profile was associated with the most optimistic perceptions regarding community trends. In other words, respondents in the spiritual but not religious life-style profile perceived the community to be trending more positively in the four areas surveyed, relative to the other two profiles. Some tentative implications are drawn from the findings and the manuscript concludes by offering suggestions for future research.