NCJ Number
225540
Journal
Journal of Drug Issues Volume: 38 Issue: 3 Dated: Summer 2008 Pages: 821-846
Date Published
2008
Length
26 pages
Annotation
Contributing to the research examining the links between religious involvement and alcohol use patterns, this study developed refined measures of domain-specific religious salience, and explored their links with the frequency of alcohol use in a diverse sample of college students.
Abstract
Results confirm the importance of domain-specific religious salience in shaping alcohol choices, but at the same time, also show that overall levels of such salience in this sample were relatively low, indicating that other influences were also important, such as peers, and parents. A long tradition of research documents religious variations in alcohol behavior among adolescents. However, theoretical understanding of the mechanisms linking religion and alcohol behavior remains underdeveloped. In contributing to the literature on religion and alcohol behavior, this study reviewed arguments and findings linking several dimensions of religious involvement with alcohol consumption patterns. It develops the construct of “domain-specific religious salience,” and argues that this is a key intervening variable though which religiousness and alcohol behavior are connected. Relevant hypotheses derived from this conceptual model were then tested using data from a religiously diverse sample of students drawn at a large Midwestern State university. Figure, tables, notes, and references