Religious affiliation and abstinence; a fifteen-year change.

Abstract

in 1963. Since the publication of Skolnick's (1) work on the relationship between religious affiliation and drinking, religious affiliation has been considered to be an important factor in explaining drinking practices. Persons affiliated with religious groups that either formally or informally encourage abstinence from alcohol are more likely to be abstainers than persons affiliated ;vith religious groups that are more permissive or liberal about drinking. The higher proportion of abstainers among those with abstinence-oriented religious affiliations than among those with nonabstinence-oriented religious affiliations could thus serve as a measure of religious control over drinking. Support for this relationship has been found in a wide variety of research (2-5) on diverse samples studied at various periods of time. There have been few attempts, however, to look at possible changes in this relationship within comparable populations over time. The present report looks at the continuity of religious influence on the practice of abstinence by focusing on the relationship between religious affiliation and abstinence, the changes in this relationship over time and the social segments in xvhich these changes have been most acute. METHODS The data analyzed were collected by the National Opinion Research Center. One data set was collected in 1963 from a sample representative of the total