The strong presence of religion, whether Christian, Muslim, or another faith, within the African American community may help explain mean group level differences in rates of drinking and abstinence from alcohol between African Americans and European Americans (Steinman & Zimmerman, 2004; Taylor et al., 1999; Wallace et al., 2003b; Wills, Yaegar, & Sandy, 2003b). For example, compared to European American youth, African American youth rated religion as more important, prayed more often, attended religious services more frequently, were more fundamentalist in their religious beliefs, and consumed less alcohol (Brown et al., 2001).
