Associations Between Self-efficacy, Participation in Organized Leisure Activities, and Adolescents’ Propensity for Substance Use

Introduction. The increasing rates of substance use among adolescents raise significant concerns regarding youth health-related behaviors. One such protective factor is self-efficacy, which has been identified as a key variable in resisting harmful substance use. Additionally, organized leisure activities are considered beneficial for enhancing self-efficacy, fostering positive social relationships and modelling prosocial behaviour. Recent reports indicate a decline in these abovementioned constructs among Lithuanian adolescents. Lack of studies exploring direct interface between these constructs shows significance of current research. This study explores relationship between adolescents’ self-efficacy, participation in organized leisure activities, and their likelihood of engaging in substance use. Methods. Methods include data from 2022 Lithuanian HBSC survey, responses of 3366 schoolchildren from grades 9 and 11. Results. Main results indicate that perceived self-efficacy was significantly associated with lower risk of alcohol (OR = 0.68; p < 0.001), tobacco (OR = 0.70; p < 0.001), e-cigarette (OR = 0.70; p < 0.001), and cannabis (OR = 0.73; p = 0.029) use. Participation in team sports was associated with higher risk of e-cigarette dependence (OR = 1.36; p < 0.001), individual sports – with increased risk of alcohol use (OR = 1.21; p = 0.035). Engagement in youth organizations associated with higher rates of alcohol (OR = 1.88; p < 0.001), tobacco (OR = 1.80; p < 0.001), e-cigarette use (OR = 2.01; p < 0.001), while participation in religious activities – with lower risk across alcohol (OR = 0.67; p = 0.018) and e-cigarette dependence (OR = 0.67; p = 0.015). Conclusions. Higher levels of perceived self-efficacy were associated with reduced risk of alcohol, tobacco, and e-cigarette dependence among adolescents. However, sports activities’ associations with substance use were inconsistent – if participation in religious activities seemed to have a protective effect, participation in youth organizations (and in sports, to some extent) was related to higher risk of substance use. Further research may be useful for understanding the effects of organized leisure on young people’s lifestyle choices.