Are There Gender, Racial, or Religious Denominational Differences in Religiosity’s Effect on Alcohol Use and Binge Drinking Among Youth in the United States? A Propensity Score Weighting Approach

Abstract

Background: Alcohol use/misuse is a prevalent health issue among youth and may lead to adverse consequences. Religiosity has been identified as a protective factor against alcohol use/misuse among youth. Identifying moderators in the religiosity-alcohol relationship has important implications for intervention development. Objective: This study aims to examine whether gender, race, or religious denomination moderate the religiosity-alcohol relationship. Method: This study overcame previous studies’ limitations by using longitudinal data from a nationally representative sample and robust analytical methods (N = 1969). This study used the propensity score weighting method to control for a large number of confounders. Propensity score weights were estimated using Generalized Boosted Models. Results: Findings indicate that gender and religious denomination might not moderate the religiosity-alcohol relationship, whereas racial difference was present. Among White youth, religiosity was found to have a buffering effect against alcohol use (average treatment effect [ATE] = –0.57, CI_.95 = –0.83, –0.32) and binge drinking (ATE = 0.54, CI_.95 = 0.38, 0.71). However, among non-White youth, religiosity was not found to have an effect on alcohol use (ATE = 0.08, CI_.95 = –0.31, 0.47) or binge drinking (ATE = 1.07, CI_.95 = 0.68, 1.64). Conclusions: Findings suggest that preventions/interventions of youth alcohol involvement that are religiously based may not need to adapt their efforts based on youth’s gender or religious denominations. More importantly, when addressing alcohol use/misuse issue among White American youth, religious and faith-based organizations, youth religious group leaders, and clergy should be included in the prevention/intervention efforts.

Keywords:

• Youth alcohol use and misuse
• religiosity
• gender
• race
• religious denomination

Acknowledgment

The National Study of Youth and Religion, http://youthandreligion.nd.edu/, whose data were used by permission here, was generously funded by Lilly Endowment Inc., under the direction of Christian Smith, of the Department of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.