Alcohol milestones, risk factors, and religion/spirituality in young adult women

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22152660

J Stud Alcohol Drugs. 2012 Jan;73(1):34-43.
Alcohol milestones, risk factors, and religion/spirituality in young adult women.
Haber JR, Grant JD, Jacob T, Koenig LB, Heath A.
Source
Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Health Care System, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA.

Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
The alcoholism research literature has long reported a significant, reliable, and inverse association between alcohol use disorders and religion/spirituality (R/S), and this is also evident in the period of highest risk--adolescence and young adulthood. In the treatment area, both clinical and mutual-help programs for alcohol use disorders often include a spiritual component, and outcome studies validate the efficacy of such programs. Even so, the alcoholism-R/S relationship is little understood.

METHOD:
The current study examined data from an existing sample of 4,002 female adolescents/young adults and their families. Data analyses examined five demographic, nine R/S, and eight risk-factor variables as predictors of five alcohol milestones: initial drink, first intoxication, regular use, heavy consumption, and alcohol dependence.

RESULTS:
Results affirmed the known association between alcoholism risk factors and alcohol use milestones and also found moderate to strong associations between most R/S variables and these risk factors and milestones. A multivariate model simultaneously examining both sets of variables found that specific risk factors and specific R/S variables remained significant predictors of alcohol use milestones after accounting for all other variables. Mediation and moderation tests did not find evidence that R/S accounted for or qualified the relationship between alcohol risk factors and alcohol milestones.

CONCLUSIONS:
This study confirmed the multidimensional role of R/S influences within the etiological network of alcoholism risk and protective factors in adolescents/young adults and found R/S dimensions to be independent and substantial influences on alcohol use disorders rather than mediators or moderators of other risks.