structural modeling of substance use in university students: religious involvement, social modeling, spiritual well-being and attitude towards substance

substance use is one of the important health problems in the world. the present study aimed to test the structural relations of religious involvement, negative beliefs about substance, spiritual well-being and smoking in a sample of university students. five hundred and four male and female students of kharazmi university, faculty of agriculture of tehran university and islamic azad university of karaj branch were selected by cluster sampling, and completed the religious involvement questionnaire, spiritual well-being questionnaire, social modeling questionnaire, negative beliefs inventory and smoking subscale of high risk behavior questionnaire. results showed that effects of religious involvement on smoking was mediated by negative beliefs about substance use, social modeling and spiritual wellbeing. findings suggested plausible mechanisms by which religiousness could impact smoking. therefore, highlighting these variables could be useful and effective in prevention of smoking which is a gateway for substance abuse.