Adolescent population is a very vulnerable group for risk behavior and this time period can determine the lifestyle and health status of adulthood. Their health is strongly associated with behaviors learned within a socio-cultural context. Many studies revealed that behaviors linked to social learning can either increase or decrease the school-aged children’s risk for adverse health outcomes that may persist through adulthood. [100] An increased interest in the effects of religion on health is appeared in medical literature. There is mounting evidence that religiosity is associated with health and wellbeing [2,3]. Religion is usually described as protective factors for adolescents against a host of negative health outcomes [6 –10]. In general, adolescents who have higher levels of religiosity fare better than their less religious peers: they have lower rates of risky health behaviors and fewer mental health problems. [5,11–16]. …show more content…
There is considerable disagreement and inconsistency within the scientific community regarding definitions of this term [17,18]. Religiosity can be thought of as the formal, institutional, and outward expression of the sacred [18,19] and measured by variables such as importance of religion, belief in God, frequency of religious service attendance, frequency of prayer, and/or frequency of meditation. Pargament describes the distal/proximal framework of religion/spirituality. According to this framework the distal domains of religion/spirituality mainly depending individual behaviors (e.g., frequency of attendance at services, prayer, or meditation) and have often been referred to as ‘religiosity’, and proximal domains, which gauge the functions of religion/spirituality for the individual (e.g., spiritual support, religious coping, spiritual meaning) often referred to as ‘spirituality’ [21,22].