Following initiation, progression to at-risk drinking (intoxication or regular drinking) was influenced by R/S factors but not by risk factors (see Table 3, Stage II). This finding is new to the literature and implies that progression may not be subject to the influence of recognized risk factors at this stage, but may be strongly influenced by protective factors including R/S variables. Religious attendance and religious affiliations having rules against all alcohol use delayed progression at this stage. Religious attendance was previously shown to encompass social factors (Haber et al., 2007) including religious social support, social norms, and social role models that discourage alcohol involvement (Edlund et al., 2010), and may inhibit drinking in ways that parallel Alcoholics Anonymous (Kelly et al., 2009). Thus, this intermediate stage of progression to AD might be a window of opportunity where the influence of risk factors is minimal and the influence of protective environmental factors (including R/S factors) may be high. Since females tend to be more religious and more carefully supervised than their male counterparts, these influences may be stronger in female than
