Does religious involvement protect against early drinking? A behavior genetic approach.
- Authors
- Harden, K Paige
- Year
- 2010
- Journal
- Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines
- PMID
- 20406334
- DOI
- 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2010.02247.x
BACKGROUND: Adolescent involvement in religious organizations has been hypothesized to protect against early age at first drink. However, the correlation between adolescent religiosity and later age at first drink may be confounded by environmental or genetic differences between families. This study tests whether, after controlling for shared environmental and genetic confounds using a behavior genetic design, the association between individual levels of religiosity and earlier age at first drink is still evident. METHOD: Twin and sibling pairs were drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a nationally-representative sample of US adolescents. Age at first drink was measured as how old adolescents were when they first had a drink of beer, wine, or liquor. Religiosity was measured using four items concerning frequency of religious activities and importance of religious beliefs. Using twins and siblings who were discordant for religiosity, analyses tested whether religious adolescents had a later age at first drink than their non-religious co-twins/co-siblings. RESULTS: Religious adolescents did not differ from their non-religious siblings in their mean age at first drink. Results from survival models indicate that environmental differences between families completely account for the correlation between religiosity and later age at first drink. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that individual religious involvement is a proxy variable for family or cultural environments that are salient for when adolescents initiate alcohol use. Future research is needed to identify specific protective environments in religious families. These results have implications for both public policy and etiological theory.
No figures extracted from this document.
No chunks — full text not yet ingested.
No entities extracted from this document yet.
No uploaded files.
No citations found.
In this knowledge base
External
| Title | Authors | Journal | Year | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "It's easy to dismiss it as simply a spiritual problem." Experiences of mental distress within evangelical Christian communities: A qualitative survey. | Lloyd CEM et al. | — | 2025 | → |
| Passing the Torch: The Mediating Role of Internalization in the Intergenerational Continuity of Catholic Religious Value Transmission in American Parents. | Ott J et al. | — | 2025 | → |
| Health trajectories of individuals who quit active religious attendance: analysis of four prospective cohort studies in the United States. | Jokela M et al. | — | 2024 | → |
| Religion and drinking: Differences between two campuses. | Tomkins MM et al. | — | 2023 | → |
| Religiosity, Psychological Distress, and Well-Being: Evaluating Familial Confounding With Multicohort Sibling Data. | Jokela M | — | 2022 | → |
| Religiosity and substance use in U.S. adults: Findings from a large-scale national survey. | Livne O et al. | — | 2021 | → |
| Psychosocial moderation of polygenic risk for cannabis involvement: the role of trauma exposure and frequency of religious service attendance. | Meyers JL et al. | — | 2019 | → |
| Differences between White and Black young women in the relationship between religious service attendance and alcohol involvement. | Agrawal A et al. | — | 2017 | → |
| Future so bright? Delay discounting and consideration of future consequences predict academic performance among college drinkers. | Acuff SF et al. | — | 2017 | → |
| Phenotypic Dimensions of Spirituality: Implications for Mental Health in China, India, and the United States. | McClintock CH et al. | — | 2016 | → |
| A multivariate twin study of the dimensions of religiosity and common psychiatric and substance use disorders. | Vance T et al. | — | 2014 | → |
| Genetic influences on adolescent sexual behavior: Why genes matter for environmentally oriented researchers. | Harden KP | — | 2014 | → |
| Mental disorders, religion and spirituality 1990 to 2010: a systematic evidence-based review. | Bonelli RM et al. | — | 2013 | → |
| Dimensions of religiosity and access to religious social capital: correlates with substance use among urban adolescents. | Mason MJ et al. | — | 2012 | → |
| Factors affecting parental supply of alcohol to underage adolescents. | Ward BM et al. | — | 2011 | → |
| Parents's plans to supply their adolescents with alcohol. | Ward BM et al. | — | 2011 | → |
| The role of academic motivation in high school students' current and lifetime alcohol consumption: adopting a self-determination theory perspective. | Wormington SV et al. | — | 2011 | → |
| Thrill seeking and religiosity in relation to adolescent substance use: tests of joint, interactive, and indirect influences. | Mason WA et al. | — | 2011 | → |
| To drink or not to drink: motives and expectancies for use and nonuse in adolescence. | Anderson KG et al. | — | 2011 | → |