Call for papers: MSSA annual meeting in Pittsburgh, PA, October 18-20, 2024

Our main MSSA meeting is held conjointly each year with the SSSR + RRA annual meeting.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania skyline

Image by C. Klein from Pixabay.

The Mormon Social Science Association welcomes paper submissions for its annual meeting, held conjointly with the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion + Religious Research Association annual meeting. The event will take place at the Westin Convention Center, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from October 18 to 20, 2024.

We invite contributions on all topics relevant to the social scientific study of Mormonism, with special interest in those featuring multiculturalism, gender/sexuality, post-colonialism, generational change, and questions of disaffiliation/retention. The theme of the 2024 SSSR+RRA annual meeting is “Religion: Past, Present, and Future.”

Submissions Close: March 15, 2024

The MSSA invites proposals for:

  • Individual papers
  • Session proposals
  • Book panel proposals

Submit proposals through this link by Friday March 15th, 2024

Join the MSSA

As an interdisciplinary and international association, the MSSA promotes the social scientific study of Mormonism and facilitates communication and collaboration among researchers, educators and students. Membership is open to all. We sponsor scholarly conferences, publications, panel discussions, paper sessions,  and the biennial Glenn M. Vernon Lecture. Join us today

Call for Papers: April 18, 2024 MSSA One-Day Conference at Utah Tech University in Saint George, Utah

Photo: Utah Tech University photo database

The Mormon Social Science Association welcomes paper submissions for our One-Day Conference at Utah Tech University in St. George, Utah on Thursday, April 18, 2024. In addition to paper sessions, there is time and space for research posters from undergraduate and graduate students. Poster proposals should include a title and abstract and specify that it is a poster proposal. Title and abstract should be 150 to 250 words.

Submissions close March 19, 2024.

The MSSA invites submissions on all topics relevant to the social scientific study of Mormonism:

  • Individual Papers
  • Session Proposals
  • Panels
  • Author-Meets-Critics sessions
  • Posters

Submit proposals by March 19th through this link.

April 15, 2023 MSSA One-day Conference at Utah Tech University in St. George, Utah

Our One-Day MSSA conference is being revived after several years of pandemic-related hiatus, and we are delighted that Dr. Nancy Ross of Utah Tech University, has agreed to coordinate the event. Rather than having competing breakout sessions, we will all be meeting in the same room, with plenty of time for discussion.

The MSSA invites submissions for:

  • Individual Papers
  • Session Proposals
  • Panels
  • Author-Meets-Critics sessions
  • Posters

Submit paper proposals through this link by March 20, 2023.

Submissions Open: February 1, 2023
Submissions Close: March 20, 2023

Questions: nancy.ross@utahtech.edu

DOWNLOAD CONFERENCE POSTER PDF

In Remembrance of Armand L. Mauss, 1928-2020 | Mormon Social Science Association Pioneer, Patron and Mentor

Armand Mauss, honorary plaque

Armand L. Mauss, MSSA pioneer, patron, and mentor, passed away at his home in Irvine, California August 1, 2020, concluding a long struggle with cancer at age 92. The immediate cause of his death was heart failure.  Armand placed himself in home hospice care just a little over a year ago and survived far longer than initial expectations.  His yearlong vigil was blessed with an absence of pain and retention of a clear mind. He communicated regularly with family, friends, and colleagues through phone calls, emails, and letters, and he  welcomed visitors to his Irvine condo.  During this time Armand maintained a typically detached and pragmatic view of himself and his circumstances. He confronted his dying with equanimity and, although certainly not a conventional believer, did fondly anticipate reuniting with his beloved Ruth, who had passed away a few months prior to Armand’s own entry into hospice care.

Perhaps Armand’s greatest satisfaction during his final year of life derived from his capacity to continue fully engaging in multiple conversations with others.  He stayed current on events religious and political; dispensed sage advice and spot-on suggestions to colleagues working on a wide range of scholarly projects that interested him; and offered assessments of his personal involvements and  encounters with significant people and events over his lifetime that were fascinating and insightful without lapsing into self-aggrandizement. 

Most MSSA members are well aware of Armand’s many signal accomplishments and contributions.  In subsequent days, a number of eulogistic accounts of his life and work will no doubt appear in newspapers, social media, and various scholarly venues.  Our own on-line virtual MSSA conference proceedings in late October will include an Armand Mauss in memoriam session. For those who would like to see immediate summaries of some of Armand’s contributions, we offer below Gary Shepherd’s assessment of Armand’s specific contributions to Mormon Studies  at the 2002 Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR) meetings and Gordon Shepherd’s review of Armand’s 2012 autobiography, Shifting Borders and a Tattered Passport: Intellectual Journeys of a Mormon Academic.

MSSA Annual Meeting 2018 | Tropicana Hotel | Las Vegas, Nevada | October 26-28

MSSA_SSSR + RRA Speakers_2018 LAS VEGAS 2

Mormon Social Science Association Annual Meeting

#MormonStudies

Join us for the Annual Meeting of the MSSA, October 26-28, 2018 at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. Click on the PDF link above for an “At a Glance” conference line-up.

The MSSA gathering is held annually in conjunction with the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and the Religious Research Association  (SSSR + RRA). The full program for #SSSR2018LV is available online here.

 

Ask An Expert: Are there mental health consequences to being LGBT in the LDS Church?

Q: “Does being LGBT in a non-affirming environment, such as the LDS Church, contribute to worse mental health outcomes and quality of life scores than an individual would have in an affirming environment?”

A: Luckily, there is a growing body of research that specifically addresses this question.  A number of articles have come out just in the last year that present the results of a survey of LGBTQ individuals who are or were members of the LDS Church.  Among the publications are a number of findings that directly address this question.

For instance, in Dehlin, Galliher, Bradshaw, and Crowell 2015, the authors note that LGB individuals fall into four categories when it comes to their relationship with religion (similar to other research on this topic):

  1. Individuals who reject their LGB identity (5.5% of their sample)
  2. Individuals who compartmentalize their sexual and religious identities (37.2% of their sample)
  3. Individuals who rejected their religious identity (53% of their sample)
  4. Individuals who integrated their religious and sexual identities (4.4% of their sample)

After categorizing the participants in their survey into these groups, they then compared these groups on a variety of measures, including some related to mental health and quality of life.  Individuals in the first two groups had the worst mental health outcomes.  Specifically, members of the first two groups had statistically significantly higher scores on internalized homophobia, identity confusion, and depression than did individuals in the other two groups.  Individuals in the last group, who were quite rare, actually fared well, but were unlikely to live in Utah and had lots of family support, allowing them to integrate their sexual and religious identities.

In another study drawing on the same data set, Crowell, Galliher, Dehlin, and Bradshaw 2015, found that more active LGB members of the LDS Church had statistically significantly higher levels of both minority stress indicators (i.e., higher levels of internalized homophobia, greater need for privacy or concealment, greater need for acceptance, greater identity confusion, greater difficulty in coming to terms with and disclosing sexual identity, and higher levels of prejudice against heterosexual individuals) as well higher levels of depression.  This research aligns with other research with similar findings outside the LDS Church (Herek, Gillis, and Cogan 2009).

In short, the existing research to date does indicate that participation in a non LGBTQ affirming, conservative, organization like the LDS Church does result in worse mental health and quality of life outcomes than does not affiliating with such an organization.

References:

  • Crowell, K. A., Galliher, R. V., Dehlin, J., & Bradshaw, W. S. (2015). Specific Aspects of Minority Stress Associated With Depression Among LDS Affiliated Non-Heterosexual Adults. Journal of Homosexuality, 62(2), 242–267. http://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2014.969611
  • Dehlin, J. P., Galliher, R. V., Bradshaw, W. S., & Crowell, K. A. (2015). Navigating Sexual and Religious Identity Conflict: A Mormon Perspective. Identity, 15(1), 1–22. http://doi.org/10.1080/15283488.2014.989440
  • Herek, G. M., Gillis, J. R., & Cogan, J. C. (2009). Internalized stigma among sexual minority adults: Insights from a social psychological perspective. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 56, 32–43.

Ask an Expert: What percentage of Mormons divorce when one spouse leaves the religion?

Q: Do you have any insight on how often a spouse leaving the church leads directly to divorce? I am most interested in the statistic for divorce attributed primarily to the spouse changing their beliefs and controlled for other behaviors that are independent of simply no longer believing or participating.

A: Arland Thornton provided a citation that had a statistic on this.  He found the statistic in a post by Bob McCue:

“And what of my relationship with my wife and children? My wife and I were on the brink of divorce because she could not respect and love me as I am now in the fashion she did the priesthood leader I used to be. I could feel a loss of intimacy – an emptiness and sorrow where her love for me used to be. Something had died between us. Thankfully, she now recognizes the legitimacy of my concerns respecting the Church’s influence in our lives and the importance of ensuring that our children are raised with an understanding that religious matters are not clear-cut. The world is full of shades of grey, and the Church is no different. And while she continues to be an active and faithful member, she respects what I have done and supports me. We made it over the precipice with nothing to spare. I recently became aware of an unpublished master’s degree thesis in anthropology at a Canadian university that surveyed LDS returned missionaries who had gone through something similar to what I have, and found an 80% divorce rate. That does not surprise me given my recent experience.”

Unfortunately, Bob McCue did not note what that unpublished Master’s thesis was, so we don’t have a specific reference on this.

I (Ryan Cragun) did a little more sleuthing on this topic as I was wondering if there might be a dataset that could provide some information on this.  What I found is far from perfect, but may be helpful to you.  The General Social Survey (GSS) asks participants their religious affiliation at the time of the survey (variable = “relig”) and when they were 16 (variable = “relig16”).  If respondents indicated “Mormon” as their religion, that gets coded into separate variables (Mormon at present = 64 in the variable “other”; Mormon at 16 = 64 in the variable “oth16”).  Combining these two variables, it’s possible to isolate individuals who were Mormon at 16 but have since left the religion (there are 186 such individuals in the combined 1972-2014 GSS data set).

Of those 186 individuals, 46 had never married, which means they were never at a risk of divorcing.  Of the remaining 140 who had married, 34 were currently divorced or separated at the time of their participation in the survey, for a divorce/separation percentage of 24%.  Compare that to individuals who were Mormon at 16 and still Mormon at the time of the survey: their divorce/separation percentage was 11%.  In other words, individuals who left the Mormon Church were more than twice as likely to divorce than did those who stayed.

This is somewhat problematic for several reasons.  First, the variable for marital status (“marital”) does not indicate whether the respondents have ever divorced (there is a variable that asks that, but it’s not included in every wave of the survey).  So, it is likely that the percentage of respondents indicating they are currently divorced is lower than the percentage who have ever divorced.  Second, the GSS does not include a variable indicating when people left a religion or switched their religious affiliation.  As a result, we can’t say that those who left the religion did so when they were married.  Third, we don’t know what the cause of divorce or separation was.  The higher rate of divorce among those who left the LDS Church could be due to a number of other factors and not exclusively the result of them having left the LDS Church.

Taking all of the above into account, data from the General Social Survey suggest that about 1 in 4 people who were Mormon at 16 but have since left the religion have divorced or separated from their spouse, versus about 1 in 10 who remained Mormon.

In the interest of looking just a little further into this, I also examined whether marital satisfaction was higher among Mormons married to Mormons (variable in the GSS is “spoth”) versus Mormons married to non-Mormons.  Turns out, marital satisfaction is significantly and substantially higher among Mormons married to other Mormons. Of the 315 Mormons who were married to other Mormons, 71% said their marriage was very happy, 28% said it was pretty happy, just 1.6% said it was not too happy.  Of the 69 Mormons married to non-Mormons, 54% said their marriage was very happy, 36% said it was pretty happy, and 10% said it was not too happy.  Admittedly, these numbers are rather small, but they are sufficient to find that the differences in marital satisfaction are statistically significant (Chi-Square = 17.169, p < .001).  Again, these numbers are not a direct answer to the question since it isn’t clear whether those who are married to non-Mormons are married to people who used to be Mormon or someone who never was Mormon.  Even so, they do indicate that Mormons who are not married to other Mormons have substantially lower marital satisfaction than do Mormons who are married to Mormons, which would likely increase the odds of divorce and separation.

Overall, it does not appear as though there is a readily available citation to answer your question.  However, evidence does seem to suggest that the odds of divorce increase when one member of a couple leaves the LDS Church.