This research identifies social reinforcers within religious institutions associated with alcohol consumption among Korean women in California.
Approximately 70.4% of women reported any lifetime drinking, and drinkers drank a mean (SD) of 1.10 (1.22) drinks on drinking days. About 30.8% reported any exposure to religious leaders' messages discouraging excessive drinking, and 28.2% reported any exposure to similar messages from congregants. Each congregant's message was statistically significantly associated with a 5.1% lower probability) of any lifetime drinking. also, each congregant's message was associated with a 13.8% lower drinking rate, which was statistically significant after adjusting for covariates using a one-tailed test. Exposure to leaders' messages was not statistically significantly associated with any lifetime drinking or drinking rate.
Social reinforcement in the form of religious messages may be one mechanism by which religious institutions influence drinking behaviors. For Korean women, messages from congregants had a unique impact beyond the traditional religiosity indicators. These social mechanisms provide public health interventionists with religious pathways to improve drinking behaviors.
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