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Religiousness and Levels of Hazardous Alcohol Use: A Latent Profile Analysis

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Abstract

Prior person-centered research has consistently identified a subgroup of highly religious participants that uses significantly less alcohol when compared to the other subgroups. The construct of religious motivation is absent from existing examinations of the nuanced combinations of religiousness dimensions within persons, and alcohol expectancy valuations have yet to be included as outcome variables. Variable-centered approaches have found religious motivation and alcohol expectancy valuations to play a protective role against individuals’ hazardous alcohol use. The current study examined latent religiousness profiles and hazardous alcohol use in a large, multisite sample of ethnically diverse college students. The sample consisted of 7412 college students aged 18–25 (M age = 19.77, SD age = 1.61; 75 % female; 61 % European American). Three latent profiles were derived from measures of religious involvement, salience, and religious motivations: Quest-Intrinsic Religiousness (highest levels of salience, involvement, and quest and intrinsic motivations; lowest level of extrinsic motivation), Moderate Religiousness (intermediate levels of salience, involvement, and motivations) and Extrinsic Religiousness (lowest levels of salience, involvement, and quest and intrinsic motivations; highest level of extrinsic motivation). The Quest-Intrinsic Religiousness profile scored significantly lower on hazardous alcohol use, positive expectancy outcomes, positive expectancy valuations, and negative expectancy valuations, and significantly higher on negative expectancy outcomes, compared to the other two profiles. The Extrinsic and Moderate Religiousness profiles did not differ significantly on positive expectancy outcomes, negative expectancy outcomes, negative expectancy valuations, or hazardous alcohol use. The results advance existing research by demonstrating that the protective influence of religiousness on college students’ hazardous alcohol use may involve high levels on both quest and intrinsic religious motivation.

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Acknowledgments

We thank all members of the MUSIC collaborative for their work with the research design, data collection, and data management, and Justin Dyer for statistical consultation.

Author contributions

PJ conceptualized and designed the current study, led the writing of the manuscript, helped with the interpretation of data, and revised the manuscript. SH conceptualized and designed the current study, conducted data analysis and interpretation, wrote and revised the manuscript. BZ conceptualized and designed the current study, helped with the interpretation of data, helped with original study design and data collection, and helped write and revise the manuscript. LH conceptualized and designed the current study, helped with the original study data collection, and helped write and revise the manuscript. SS helped with original study design and data collection, provided critical editing of the manuscript and helped with the revision. SK, LF, MB, RD, SW, EH, and MC helped with original study data collection and provided critical editing of the manuscript.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical standard

All procedures performed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. For the current study, using archival data, formal consent was not required as informed consent was obtained from all individual participants in the original data collection procedure.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Counseling Psychology Program, Bethel University, 3900 Bethel Dr., St. Paul, MN, 55112, USA

    Peter J. Jankowski

  2. Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA

    Sam A. Hardy

  3. Smith College, Northampton, MA, USA

    Byron L. Zamboanga

  4. University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA

    Lindsay S. Ham

  5. University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA

    Seth J. Schwartz

  6. University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA

    Su Yeong Kim

  7. University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Larry F. Forthun

  8. Prevention Research Center, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Melina M. Bersamin

  9. Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA, USA

    Roxanne A. Donovan

  10. University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA

    Susan Krauss Whitbourne

  11. Pomona College, Claremont, CA, USA

    Eric A. Hurley

  12. Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA

    Miguel Ángel Cano

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  1. Peter J. Jankowski
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Correspondence to Peter J. Jankowski.

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Jankowski, P.J., Hardy, S.A., Zamboanga, B.L. et al. Religiousness and Levels of Hazardous Alcohol Use: A Latent Profile Analysis. J Youth Adolescence 44, 1968–1983 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-015-0302-4

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