THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION ON SOCIOCULTURAL PREDICTORS OFDRINKING AMONG BLACK-AND-WHITE AMERICANS

Although religious denominations have been shown to affect the drinkin g behavior of their members, few studies have examined this topic amon g Black Americans. The following study explored whether a model predic ting drinking from religious denominations through a series of interve ning cognitive and social variables (drinking attitudes and norms, soc ial contexts, social networks, and home use of alcohol) would be the s ame for Blacks and Whites. The results showed that there are a number of racial differences in how religious background influences interveni ng social characteristics, but few in the predictors of drinking behav ior. Many significant racial differences were observed among Baptists, a moderate number among Catholics, and few or none were observed for Conservative Protestants and Methodists.