Familial and Religious Influences on Adolescent Alcohol Use: A Multi-Level Study of Students and School Communities

A multi-level Durkheimian theory of familial and religious influences on adolescent alcohol use is developed and tested with hierarchical linear modeling of data from Icelandic schools and students. On the individual level, traditional family structure, parental monitoring, parental support, religious participation, and perceptions of divine support and social constraint are associated with less adolescent alcohol use. Individual parents knowing other parents (intergenerational closure) is not associated with less alcohol use among their children, but all students drink less in schools where such intergenerational closure is high. The religiosity of individual parents is not significantly related to their children's alcohol use, but female students drink significantly less in schools where religious parents are more prevalent. The results are generally consistent with the proposed theoretical model.