Religion, psychopathology, and substance use and abuse; a multimeasure, genetic-epidemiologic study

Authors:
  • CGC O Gardner
    C O Gardner
  • CPC A Prescott
    C A Prescott
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Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The authors sought to 1) understand the sources of familial resemblance for religiosity, 2) clarify the relationship between religiosity and current psychiatric symptoms, current substance use, lifetime psychiatric disorders, and lifetime substance dependence, and 3) explore the stress-buffering properties of religiosity. METHOD: Data were obtained by personal interview of 1,902 twins from female-female pairs in the population-based Virginia Twin Registry. Measures included 1) 10 items reflecting a range of religious behavior and beliefs, 2) a scale of institutional conservatism of current religious affiliation, 3) previous history of stressful life events, 4) current psychiatric symptoms and substance use, and 5) lifetime psychiatric disorders and substance dependence. Statistical methods used included factor analyses, Cox and linear regression, and twin modeling. RESULTS: Personal devotion and personal and institutional conservatism were all strongly familial, and model fitting suggested that...

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