Religion and alcohol in the U.S. National Alcohol Survey: How important is religion for abstention and drinking?

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Abstract

Objective

This paper examines the relative importance of three religion variables (religious preference, religiosity, and alcohol proscription) and eight demographic variables (gender, ethnicity, education, income, marital status, age, region, and employment status) as statistical predictors of drinking versus abstention and moderate versus heavy drinking.

Method

Data from 7370 telephone interviews from the 2000 National Alcohol Survey are analyzed using bivariate cross-tabulations and multiple logistic regression.

Results

When analyzed by religious preference groups, the NAS showed diverse patterns of abstention and drinking that suggest that religion variables are important for drinking behaviors. It was found that the religion variables are strongly associated with abstention. For statistical prediction of heavy versus moderate drinking, religion variables significantly improve model fit but are secondary to gender and age.

Conclusions

Religion variables are important for drinking patterns, especially abstention. The relationship of religion to lower levels of alcohol abuse merits further study, such as investigating religious denominations with healthy patterns of abstention and moderate drinking, to learn how these norms are initiated and maintained. Such knowledge has promise of application in programs for prevention and treatment of alcohol problems.

Introduction

This study uses data from the National Alcohol Survey of the year 2000 to investigate the role of religion in abstention and alcohol consumption. Although the relationship between demographic variables and alcohol consumption patterns has been the subject of much research, only a few studies address the relationship between religion variables and alcohol-related behaviors (e.g. Straus and Bacon, 1953, Bock et al., 1987, Clark and Hilton, 1991). That religion relates to alcohol behaviors, especially abstention, is not surprising, since some denominations (e.g. Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists and Muslims) prohibit alcohol, while others (e.g. Jewish, Catholics, Lutherans and Episcopalians) ritually incorporate alcohol in the form of wine. However, the mechanisms mediating religion and alcohol-related behaviors are still not very well understood. A major problem for such research is that religion variables frequently overlap with gender, age, ethnicity, and other demographic variables, making it difficult to determine whether religion plays an independent role or is merely a proxy for other factors.

The 2000 National Alcohol Survey (NAS10) is one of the rare national surveys to explore not only demographic variables but three key religion variables: (1) religiosity, because if religion is not important to an individual then it has little effect on behavior; (2) religious preference, because norms differ from one denomination to another, especially with regard to alcohol; (3) proscription, since members of a denomination do not necessarily all share the same perception of what their religion teaches about alcohol.

Using data from NAS10, this paper addresses a series of related questions. Do religion variables help account for abstention versus drinking over and above demographic variables? For people who drink, do religion variables improve models predicting moderate or heavy alcohol consumption? What are the abstention and drinking patterns of different religious preference groups, including those with No Religion? To answer these questions, we examine three religion variables (preference, religiosity and proscription) and eight demographic variables (gender, ethnicity, education, income, age, marital status, region, and employment) for how they help explain drinking versus abstention as well as different drinking patterns. We also offer short abstention and drinking profiles of seven selected religious preferences.

Section snippets

The National Alcohol Survey

Our data are from the most recent (year 2000) National Alcohol Survey (NAS10), conducted for the Alcohol Research Group, Public Health Institute, in Berkeley, California, from November 1999 through June 2001, by Temple University Institute of Survey Research (ISR). This was the tenth NAS, conducted at approximately 5-year intervals. The NAS10 was a national household computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) survey of the adult (18 or older) population in all 50 states of the U.S. and

Demographic variables and alcohol

Table 1A explores the association of demographic variables to proscription, religiosity, religious affiliation, abstention versus drinking, and moderate versus heavy drinking. The cross-tabulations and chi-square tests of significance show a number of patterns. (1) Men are less likely than women to be proscriptive, religious, affiliated, and abstaining, and much more likely to be heavy drinkers. (2) Younger age cohorts exhibit patterns similar to men. (3) Higher income individuals are less

Denominational sample size

Although the NAS10 is a rigorous household probability sample, the findings are subject to limitations such as sample size. We include two denominations with ns of 25 and 28 and six denominations with ns between 50 and 100. These groups have limited statistical power relative to denominations represented by larger samples, but our main analytic goal is to compare religion variables and demographic variables to help in understanding rates of abstinence and of heavy drinking. Since we are not

Conclusions

Our analysis of the NAS indicates that religion variables are important for drinking behaviors, especially abstention. Surveys about alcohol and other substance abuse should therefore include questions that measure religiosity, religious preference, and proscription. Proscription, defined as the perception that one's religion discourages drinking, cannot be ascribed by the researcher based on denomination or religiosity, but must be elicited from the respondent as a separate variable.

A

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by grants P50 AA05595 (National Alcohol Research Center) and 5 T32 AA07240-27 (Research Training) from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to the Alcohol Research Group, Public Health Institute. The authors thank Anders Bergmark, Carol Cunradi, Thomas Greenfield, Lee Kaskutas, and Frederick Huxley for helpful critiques of a preliminary version presented at the 30th Annual Alcohol Epidemiology Symposium of the Kettil Bruun Society for Social and

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