Expressing Discrepancies between Religious Affiliations and Drinking Reduces Drinking Intentions.

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Public Health
• Addiction Research

Background:

• Many young adults affiliate with a religion, which often includes guidelines against excessive alcohol consumption.
• Despite religious proscriptions, many religious college students engage in excessive drinking, though at lower rates than their non-religious peers.
• Few brief interventions for college students have specifically addressed religious affiliation in relation to drinking behaviors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate an expressive writing intervention designed to increase awareness of discrepancies between religious affiliation and drinking behaviors.
• To assess if highlighting this discrepancy reduces intentions to drink, particularly among students with high religiousness and drinking levels.

Main Methods:

• 344 undergraduate students were randomly assigned to an expressive writing task.
• Participants compared their current drinking habits with either their religious affiliation or college major.
• The study employed a 2x2 factorial design involving priming and comparison conditions.

Main Results:

• Writing about the fit between drinking and religious affiliation increased expressed discrepancy.
• Increased discrepancy was associated with intentions to reduce drinking.
• The effect was moderated by subjective religiousness and current drinking levels, being stronger for more religious and heavier-drinking students.

Conclusions:

• The findings offer preliminary support for a novel intervention strategy targeting religious college students' drinking behaviors.
• This expressive writing approach has the potential to reduce alcohol consumption in a significant student population.
• The intervention's focus on religious affiliation offers a new avenue for addressing problematic drinking in this demographic.