11th Annual IGSS Conference • September 24, 2020

Integrating Genetics and the Social Sciences 2020

Religious Context and Genetic Influences on Adolescent Drinking

Joseph Clark, Center for Demography of Health and Aging, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Does religious context matter for genetic predictors of severe drinking problems, such as binging? We use data from the Add Health study and the polygenic risk score for alcohol consumption was found to significantly increase binge drinking. Maternal religiosity is found across all models to decrease risk of binge drinking. A measure of the average maternal religiosity of school peers is not found to be associated with a statistically significant reduction in binge drinking for the total sample. However, when the sample is stratified into adolescents with high and low polygenic risk scores, subsequent models uncover a protective effect of peer maternal religiosity for adolescents with high genetic risk. This suggests that religious contexts may matter differently for those with greater genetic susceptibility for alcohol misuse. Further, evidence of two distinct levels of contextual moderation supports the recommendation of Boardman and colleagues (2013) to broaden the conceptualization of environment to include multiple domains of social context.

Poster