ABSTRACT. Objective: The alcoholism research literature has long reported a signifi cant, reliable, and inverse association between alcohol use disorders and religion/spirituality (R/S), and this is also evident in the period of highest risk-adolescence and young adulthood. In the treatment area, both clinical and mutual-help programs for alcohol use disorders often include a spiritual component, and outcome studies validate the effi cacy of such programs. Even so, the alcoholism-R/S relationship is little understood. Method: The current study examined data from an existing sample of 4,002 female adolescents/young adults and their families. Data analyses examined fi ve demographic, nine R/S, and eight risk-factor variables as predictors of fi ve alcohol milestones: initial drink, fi rst intoxication, regular use, heavy consumption, and alcohol dependence. Results: Results affi rmed the known association between alcoholism risk factors and alcohol use milestones and also found moderate to strong associations between most R/S variables and these risk factors and milestones. A multivariate model simultaneously examining both sets of variables found that specifi c risk factors and specifi c R/S variables remained signifi cant predictors of alcohol use milestones after accounting for all other variables. Mediation and moderation tests did not fi nd evidence that R/S accounted for or qualifi ed the relationship between alcohol risk factors and alcohol milestones. Conclusions: This study confirmed the multidimensional role of R/S influences within the etiological network of alcoholism risk and protective factors in adolescents/young adults and found R/S dimensions to be independent and substantial infl uences on alcohol use disorders rather than mediators or moderators of other risks. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 73, 34-43, 2012) Received: May 11, 2011. Revision: September 1, 2011. This research was supported by National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Grants R01 AA016383 (Early Alcohol Use Onset: Infl uence of Religion-Spirituality Dimensions; to Jon Randolph Haber, principal investigator), AA-09022 (Alcoholism: Missouri Adolescent Female High-Risk Twin Study; to Andrew Heath, principal investigator), and R01 AA011667 (Offspring of Twins: G, E, and G × E Risks for Alcoholism; to Theodore Jacob, principal investigator).*Correspondence may be sent to Jon Randolph Haber at the Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Health Care System, 795 Willow Road, MC 151-J, Menlo Park, CA 94025 or via email at: randyhaber@gmail.com. A GENERALLY NEGATIVE ASSOCIATION has been reported between religion/spirituality (R/S) variables and alcoholism as well as its concomitant psychiatric disorders (Kendler et al., 1997;Koenig, 1998). Furthermore, (a) "religiosity has a stronger relationship with substance use and abuse than with current or lifetime psychiatric symptoms or disorders" (Kendler et al., 1997, p. 327), (b) outcome research shows recovery to be sustained by ongoing R/S involvement (Booth and Martin, 1998), and (c) clinical treatment...