Religious affiliation, religious involvement, and alcohol use in Korea.

This article is the first study of religious commitment and involvement of homeland Koreans as related to alcohol use. Religious affiliation and involvement are predictive of abstemiousness, but chiefly for women, who are at low risk for alcohol abuse and dependency, and not for men, who are at high risk. The frequent abstemiousness of Buddhist women results chiefly from data having to do with mothers and probably is a consequence of the women's traditional lifestyles, being both Buddhist and abstemious. Among the probably more Westernized Christians, religious involvement is most clearly associated with abstemiousness among daughters, a group at a relatively low but increasing risk for alcohol use.