People online will tell you Latter-day Saints are leaving the Church in droves — especially women. But when social scientists actually run the numbers, a very different story emerges.
In this episode,the Informed Saints crew sit down with Dr. Jenet Erickson — professor of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University, Wheatley Institute fellow, and Deseret News columnist — alongside co-hosts Neal Rappleye and Stephen Smoot to unpack the new BYU Studies report, Latter-day Saint Trends in the United States: Religiousness, Well-Being, and Retention (co-authored by Justin Dyer, a previous guest on the show).
Together we explore:
Why Latter-day Saints lead the nation in active retention — and what that phrase means
The real story of the gender gap: millennial women, faith, and what actually changed
Claudia Goldin's Nobel Prize–winning "quiet revolution" in women's education and work
Politics as a key predictor of disaffiliation
Christian Smith and the 1991 turning point: materialism, the divorce revolution, and institutional distrust
Pew data on Latter-day Saint women reporting deep peace and high happiness
Wheatley findings across 13 countries: religiously active women 4–5× more likely to report strong marriages, meaning, and happiness
W. Bradford Wilcox (University of Virginia) on highly religious men as husbands and fathers
Tyler VanderWeele and Harvard's Human Flourishing research on religion and mental health — and the "religion is a crutch" objection
The toxic perfectionism surprise: who actually struggles most
What mothers and fathers each contribute to a child's development — including Erickson's BYU Studies paper It Takes Two
The single strongest predictor of whether a child keeps their faith
The new Gospel Topics essay on women, the Family Proclamation's "individual adaptation" clause, and today's work-family arrangements
President Oaks' counsel on not outsourcing family life
===Informed Saints Credits===
Produced by The Ancient America Foundation
Producer: Spencer Clark
Hosts: Stephen Smoot, Neal Rappleye, Jasmin Rappleye
Further Readings:
https://ifstudies.org/about-us/jenet-erickson
https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/it-takes-two
https://rsc.byu.edu/vol-25-no-3-2024/addressing-crisis-meaning-identity-through-covenant-relationship
https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/jenet-erickson/designed-for-covenant-relationships/
https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/parental-influence-on-adolescent-perfectionism
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/family?lang=eng
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/womens-service-and-leadership-in-the-church?lang=eng
https://foundations.byu.edu/0000019b-1343-d613-a59b-17df82980000/latterdaysaintreligiosity-pdf
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Chapters
- (00:00:00) - What Do the Social Scientists Say About Retention in the Church?
- (00:00:22) - Latter Day Saint Religious Well-Being Report
- (00:02:54) - Questions about women's religiousness
- (00:07:23) - The decline in religiousness in the US
- (00:11:42) - How Does The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Fare in
- (00:16:39) - What Does Religion Do to Men?
- (00:21:42) - Mental health of religious people
- (00:26:17) - What Do Mothers and Fathers Contribute to a Child's Development?
- (00:30:02) - Why do fathers matter so much for their children's faith?
- (00:32:49) - Are Millennial Fathers More Involved With Their Kids?
- (00:35:50) - How Working Dynamics Affects Women's Religious Life
- (00:42:17) - Family Proclamation, Part 3
- (00:46:58) - President Oaks on Family Life
- (00:48:57) - Family structure is the way
- (00:49:34) - Family Life and Well Being
