Effect of religion and religiosity on alcohol use in a college student sample

Abstract

Two hundred and sixty-three alcohol using college students completed a questionnaire on their levels of alcohol use, problems with alcohol use, reasons for drinking, perceptions of control over drinking, impulsivity, venturesomeness, irrational beliefs, neuroticism, expectations of alcohol effects, depression, social norms, religious affiliation and intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity. Analyses of variance revealed that students with no religious affiliation reported significantly higher levels of drinking frequency and quantity, getting drunk, celebratory reasons for drinking and perceived drinking norms than those of either Catholic or Protestant religious affiliation, while no significant differences across groups were found for alcohol use problems. Protestants reported significantly higher levels of perceived drinking control than Catholics. Intrinsic religiosity, reflecting one's ego involvement with the tenets of one's religion, appeared to play a more important positive role over drinking behavior for Protestants than for Catholics.

Introduction

In the last 10 years, many investigators have looked at the relationship between religious affiliations and drinking behaviors. Previous research with a national sample has shown that conservative Protestants are less likely to consume alcohol than those with no religion, Catholics, liberal Protestants, Lutherans and Jews (Bock et al., 1987). In addition, Protestants were found to be less likely to visit a tavern (Cosper et al., 1987) than those categorized as not Protestant. Clark et al. (1990)found that Jews, Catholics, Episcopalians, Presbyterians and Lutherans were from “three to five times more likely to consume alcohol than are the members of proscriptive religions”. Mullen et al. (1986)studied this relationship in Scotland and found that Protestants were more likely to endorse an abstinent position, while Catholics were more permissive in their attitudes towards drinking, but not intoxication. However, only Bock et al. (1987)included individuals who have no formal religious affiliation in their samples.

In a recent investigation testing reference group theory and its links to religion, Clark et al. (1990)found that, with regard to alcohol use, “the impact of people's religious groups is greater than that of their class collectively”. Hence, it is possible that religious norms and not just affiliation may be an important determinant in how much or if one drinks.

Unfortunately, most investigators have not taken religious `beliefs towards drinking' into account. Most studies linking religion and alcohol have focused merely on religious affiliation (e.g. Mullen et al., 1986, Bock et al., 1987, Cosper et al., 1987, Clark et al., 1990, Francis, 1992) or church attendance (Francis, 1992). Spirituality, for the most part, has been largely ignored, with the exception of a few investigators (e.g. Brizer, 1993; Carroll, 1993). This general exclusion of spirituality in alcohol and drug research is surprising, in light of the use of `spirituality training' utilized by the main drug (Narcotics Anonymous (NA)) and alcohol (Alcoholics Anonymous, 1972(AA)) treatment programs for addiction to such substances. Step eleven of AA training suggests prayer and meditation, which is significantly correlated with both one's purpose in life and length of sobriety (Carroll, 1993). In addition, Christo and Franey (1995)found that only `spiritual beliefs' could reliably predict continued attendance at NA, albeit it only accounted for 6% of the total variance. Coupled with the fact that 90% of the general public in the US believes in a `higher power' according to opinion surveys, it seems remiss to ignore this aspect of alcohol usage.

It can be argued that spirituality is distinct from mere religious affiliation. This distinction is exemplified by the concept of intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity, which stems as far back as the 1940's. During this time, Gordon Allport was trying to make sense of the hypocrisy involved with religious groups and actual religious doctrines. He had difficulty understanding how individuals, who belonged to groups which taught peace, brotherhood and forgiveness, were actually more racially intolerant than people not affiliated with a religion (Allport and Kramer, 1946). Allport's natural solution, as a personality psychologist, was to break religious thoughts and practices into two divergent personality continuums related to one's religious orientation (intrinsic versus extrinsic).

Allport's description of an extrinsically religiously orientated individual was of a person who used religion for their own utilitarian interests. “Persons with this orientation may find religion useful in a variety of ways—to provide security and solace, sociability and distraction, status and self-justification” (Allport and Ross, 1967). In contrast, someone characterized as intrinsically religious is an individual who utilizes the moral teachings of peace, brotherhood and forgiveness in their everyday thoughts and actions. “It is in this sense that he lives his religion” (Allport and Ross, 1967). Allport's I-E scale has undergone many revisions and psychometric evaluations over the years (Genia, 1993, Maltby and Lewis, 1996, Gorsuch and Venable, 1983), but the basic tenets have remained the same.

In the literature, extrinsic religiosity has been correlated with shame and neuroticism (Chau et al., 1990), trait anxiety (Baker and Gorsuch, 1982), depression (Genia and Shaw, 1991), irrational beliefs (Johnson et al., 1990), dogmatism and even fear of death (Donahue, 1985). In contrast, studies have shown that intrinsic religiosity is related to internal locus of control (Kahoe, 1974), purpose in life (Crandall and Rassmussen, 1975) and empathy (Watson et al., 1984).

One purpose of this investigation was to replicate the findings of previous investigators on religious group differences in alcohol use and, at the same time, relate these to the construct of religiosity. Given that such constructs as neuroticism and depression (Camatta and Nagoshi, 1995), negative affect (Rohsenow et al., 1989) and irrational thinking (Camatta and Nagoshi, 1995) are all strong predictors of drinking related problems, it is worthwhile to investigate their relatedness to intrinsic/extrinsic religiosity. Four different types of drinking variables were measured (problems with drinking, frequency of drinking, quantity consumed at each instance of drinking and frequency of inebriation), as previous research (Wood et al., 1992, Nagoshi et al., 1994, Camatta and Nagoshi, 1995) has identified different clusters of variables predictive of alcohol use versus alcohol use problems. Four different measures of expectancies while under the influence of alcohol were included as well. Religions with more rules concerning when it is appropriate to drink may have different expectations concerning the effects of alcohol. It was predicted that since Catholics have been previously found to be more permissive than Protestants (Mullen et al., 1986), their expectancies while under the influence might be differentially related in terms of spirituality for the two groups.

Although Catholicism and Protestantism are both considered to be forms of Christianity, several of the basic tenets of the two religions set them apart. For instance, according to Stark and Glock (1968), Catholics emphasize ethicalism, i.e. `loving thy neighbor' and doing good for others, more than those who classified themselves as Protestant, as a way to earn their salvation. These values appear to be instilled in all adult members of the church. Each adolescent who is a candidate to become an adult member of their local Catholic parish must complete several hours of community service before a confirmation ceremony can take place. Other evidence that Catholics may view `God' differently is the finding that Catholics report more self-control failure guilt than those with no religious category (Demaria and Kassinove, 1988) and proneness to obsessive–compulsive cognitions (Hutchinson et al., in press). It is possible that Protestants might view God as less punitive than Catholics. In addition, it appears that Protestants believe in a more forgiving and accepting `God' conceptually similar to the one taught in AA in steps 3 and 7 (Step 3: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God. Step 7: Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings). It is therefore predicted that intrinsic religiosity may have a more positive influence on drinking control behaviors for Protestants as it does for individuals in AA. In addition, religiosity, whether extrinsic or intrinsic, should not be significantly related to drinking predictors for those who have no ego-involvement in their religion, i.e. those with no religious affiliation.

Gender differences in drinking behaviors within and across the religious categories were also explored. For instance, in Catholicism, women are not permitted to conduct mass and young women are held up to the ideal of the `Virgin Mary', who was a matriarch free of sin. This ideal and lack of equality is not as evident in many Protestant religions. Thus, it is predicted that Catholic women might drink less than males within their own religious category to a greater degree than women within other religious categories.

Finally, it has been suggested that drinking behaviors may be mediated by certain psychological factors, such as personality (Stacy et al., 1991), negative affect (Russell and Mehrabian, 1975) and maladaptive cognitions (Rohsenow et al., 1989, Camatta and Nagoshi, 1995). It is possible that there are two pathways that relate religion to drinking behaviors. The first pathway involves certain individuals with particular pre-existing personality characteristics being attracted to certain religious doctrines, which might account for the differential patterns of alcohol use among religious groups. Hence, if this is the correct pathway, it is hypothesized that personality traits will be significantly correlated with the religiosity scales (intrinsic/extrinsic) and mediate the effect of religiosity on alcohol use. The second possible pathway is one in which beliefs, inherent within the tenets on ones' religion, mediate drinking behaviors (not personality). In this scenario, expectancies while under the influence of alcohol, as well as reasons for drinking alcohol, are expected to be differentially correlated with religiosity and alcohol use among the religious categories.

In summary, the purposes of this investigation were to determine if religious affiliation, as well as religious orientation, were related to alcohol-related behaviors. Given the differences in the basic tenets of different religious groups and intrinsic religiosity's reflection of a person's commitment to those tenets (ego-involvement), such religiosity might be differentially correlated with alcohol use variables across religious groups.