Background to the Research

• Previous research demonstrates a negative relationship between attitudes toward alcohol and religiosity. However, what is less apparent is if this relationship may, at least in part, be a function of individual differences in personality, as previous research has demonstrated a relationship between certain measures of personality and both attitude toward alcohol and attitude toward religiosity.
• The aim of the present study was to explore the impact of personality and the relative efficacy of different markers of religiosity in predicting attitudes toward alcohol among a sample of 16-18 year olds in NI.
  

Research Approach

• The Francis Scale of Attitude toward Alcohol was administered alongside the Abbreviated Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity, and measures of frequency of personal prayer and church attendance among a sample of 243 16-18 year-old sixth-form students in NI.
  

Main Findings

• The religious variables demonstrated a wide range of responses. In response to a question about personal prayer, 26.5% reported praying daily, 18.2% at least once per week, 31.8% sometimes, 8% once or twice a year, and 15.4% never. In response to a question about church attendance, 38.3% reported attending church every week, 15.7% at least once a month, 22.8% sometimes, 16.7% once or twice a year, and 6.5% never.
• A more proscriptive attitude toward alcohol was associated with a more positive attitude toward Christianity, and increased frequencies of personal prayer and church attendance. A more proscriptive attitude toward alcohol was significantly associated with tendermindedness than toughmindedness (psychoticism), with introversion rather than extroversion, and with neuroticism rather than stability. Attitude toward alcohol was unrelated to lie scale scores.
• In terms of the relationship between personality and religiosity: neuroticism was unrelated to any of the religious variables; psychoticism was negatively associated with frequency of prayer, church attendance, and attitude toward Christianity; and extraversion was negatively associated with frequency of prayer, church attendance, and attitude toward Christianity, but not with prayer.
• Multiple regression significance tests, to test a multivariate model of the simultaneous influence of age, sex, religiosity and personality on attitude toward alcohol, showed that neither sex nor age functioned as significant predictors of attitude toward alcohol scores.
• The second stage of regressing the three dimensions of personality in the fixed order of psychoticism, extraversion, and neuroticism, and the lie scale, found that extraversion, psychoticism, and lie scores were not significant predictors of attitude towards alcohol. Neuroticism scores, however, significantly impacted on attitude toward alcohol scores.
• The third stage of regressing attitude toward Christianity, frequency of church attendance, frequency of prayer, and denominational affiliation in this fixed order, on the attitude toward alcohol measure, found that a more positive attitude toward Christianity was associated with a more prohibitive attitude toward alcohol. Personal prayer, church attendance, and denominational affiliation did not make a significant difference to attitude toward alcohol scores.
  

Conclusions

• This study is concluded to have integrated two schools of research which had previously been conducted in relative isolation. These schools concern the relationship between personality and attitude toward alcohol, and that between religiosity and attitude toward alcohol. Three main conclusions are drawn from the study.
• Firstly, religiosity and personality were shown to be implicated in the formation of adolescent attitudes towards alcohol. In terms of religiosity, the attitudinal dimension was a more robust predictor than the behavioural measures employed. In terms of personality, although extraversion and neuroticism were significantly related to attitude toward alcohol, psychoticism emerged as the most significant predictor of attitude toward alcohol.
• Secondly, the importance of personal religiosity in predicting individual differences in attitude toward alcohol, even after controlling for personality variables, was confirmed.
• Thirdly, neither religious practice nor religious affiliation conveyed much additional information after taking attitude toward Christianity into account. The data, therefore, suggest that it is religious attitude rather than practice which is most important in shaping the relationship between religiosity and attitude toward substance use.
• A recommendation is made that future research concerned with the relationship between religion and alcohol should include measures of religious attitude, either in place of, or in addition to, measures of religious behaviour and affiliation.