Religiosity, alcohol expectancies, drinking motives and their interaction in the prediction of drinking among college students.

OBJECTIVE: Several different mechanisms have been proposed to account for the consistent but moderate inverse relationship between religiosity and drinking, ranging from the direct proscriptions against alcohol in various faiths to social learning based on parental upbringing. Alcohol expectancies and drinking motives may be more proximal cognitive mechanisms that influence this relationship.
METHOD: The present study, using 265 college undergraduates, gathered self-report data using the Comprehensive Effects of Alcohol questionnaire, the Drinking Motives Questionnaire-Revised and the Religious Orientation Scale-Revised.
RESULTS: Of religiosity measures, intrinsic religiosity most closely related to quantity of alcohol consumption. Participants in conservative religious denominations had higher negative expectancies and lower drinking motives. Several positive and negative expectancies as well as drinking motives partially mediated the relationship between intrinsic religiosity and alcohol consumption.
CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that individuals' religious beliefs have influences on their alcohol consumption through several separate mechanisms. Religiosity may have direct effects that reduce drinking, as well as indirect effects via expectancies and motivations to drink. Negative expectancies, in particular, may serve as a buffer to promote abstinence and to reduce drinking in individuals with greater religiosity.