The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints began missionary activities in Utah in 1863. Missionaries were active throughout the territory. Over three thousand members of the Utah Mormon Church were brought into the ranks of the Reorganization during the nineteenth century. Dissatisfied Mormons found the message of the Reorganization attractive. The "new church" denied polygamy and was led by Joseph Smith III, the oldest son of the mormon Prophet Joseph Smith. Its anti-Brigham Young attitude encouraged many dissatisfied Utah Mormons to join the Reorganization. Outstanding Josephite missionaries, often ex-Utah Mormons, were very successful in spreading their new found faith among their friends and relatives. Very few of the converts remained in Utah; each spring from 1863-1875 a migration of Josephites left the Great Basin. Small temporary branches of the Reorganized Church were established in most of the larger communities in Utah. Many of these fell apart as migration deplete numbers, but the branches at Ogden, Provo, Union Fort, Salt Lake City in Utah, and Malad, Idaho, survived into the twentieth century. The Reorganized missionaries and converts in Utah made a significant impact upon federal government anti-Mormon legislation of the late nineteenth century. The Josephites also acted as a safety valve for dissatisfied Latter-day Saints. No other religious group was so successful in proselyting among Mormons in Utah as the Reorganized Church during the nineteenth century.

From 1991 through 2000, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints experienced a greater volume of national periodical attention than ever before in its history. This thesis surveys what was written about the Church in national magazines during that time and provides analysis of the effect of those writings on the Church's public image. National periodicals may serve as an important gauge of the Church's public image because they address topics of national interest and also help to formulate public opinion on those topics. This study thus provides a basis for determining how the Church fared in terms of public perception by indicating which Latter-day Saint topics received the greatest attention. It also shows how magazine coverage of these topics may have reflected favorably or unfavorably on the Church. This thesis is preceded by four similar studies. Richard O. Cowan completed a doctoral dissertation using national periodicals to analyze the Church's image from 1850 through 1961. Thereafter, Dale P. Pelo, Adam H. Nielson and Matthew E. Morrison respectively completed theses covering the three decades from 1961 to 1990. This thesis is a continuation of those studies, and implements the same research methodology.

Latter-day Saint (LDS) families with two parents and two children between the ages of 6-16 were recruited to participate in a weekly nutrition Family Home Evening (FHE) study and randomized into either a control group or an intervention group. Each family had to complete a nutrition screener prior to and after completing 6 weekly FHE lessons in the family's home environment. Online nutritional instruction was given to the intervention group for their FHE lessons, while the control group studied typical religious topics. Data taken from the nutrition screener were collapsed into a healthy or unhealthy diet score by averaging scores for questions relating to healthy or unhealthy food practices respectively. The question responses were based on a Likert-type scale ranging from 1 being less than once per week to 6 being 2+ times per day relative to specific type of food consumption. In the healthy diet profile intervention group (n = 64), parents started at 2.6 or just greater than once a week and increased to 3.0 or as much as 3 times a week. The children increased from 2.3 or slightly more than once a week to 2.7 or nearly 2-3 times per week. The overall effect was significant for parents and children (p < .001). These results suggest the intervention group increased eating healthy foods such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grain from just greater than once per week to as much as 3 times per week, a 50% increase, in response to the nutritional FHE lessons. The parents started and ended with higher scores than the children, however, the overall increase in scores was similar. In the unhealthy diet profile (n = 33), no significant change was observed between the control and intervention groups. Results of this study suggest that FHE may be an effective tool for improving nutritional behavior in LDS families. Family-based interventions using religious organizations seem to be a promising channel for implementing healthy behavior change.

This thesis attempts to better understand gender roles portrayed in the media. By using Stuart Hall's theory of audience reception (Hall, 1980) the researcher looks into dance and gender in the media to indicate whether or not LDS participants believe stereotypical gender roles are portrayed on Dancing with the Stars." Through four focus groups containing a total of 30 participants, the researcher analyzed costuming, choreography, and judges' comments through the viewer's eyes. From participant responses, the conclusion was made that audience members do perceive stereotypical gender roles on "Dancing with the Stars." Participants felt that costuming was the biggest indicator of gender roles on the show, and that choreography and judges' comments also contributed to the perception of gender roles.

This thesis operates under the assumption that the earliest form of mass communication is the religious sermon as recorded in the Bible. This thesis looks to Bormann, who used a sacred to secular approach and found similarities between Puritan sermons and the rhetoric of political speeches. This research reverses that order and moves from secular to sacred by looking first at well-known American speeches and then at landmark addresses to Seminary and Institutes of Religion teachers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—and specifically at Clark's The Charted Course of the Church in Education. This single sermon, delivered in 1938, continues to shape the Seminary and Institutes program after more than seven decades. With the opening of the first LDS Seminary in 1912, the foundations of the program were laid. Yet, each generation seemed to drift away from those foundations enough that a realignment was needed. In 1938, the constitution of Church education was given in the form of the Charted Course and it has served as the realigning document ever since. Subsequent realignments occurred in 1954, and 1963. Since 1976, the Charted Course has been referenced regularly, particularly during the annual Evening with a General Authority address to Seminary and Institute teachers and, consequently, since that time, no great drift has occurred that required another major realignment. Instead, the Charted Course is now used consistently to prevent drift, not only to correct it.

This study asked two questions. First, to what extent can metacognitive strategies instruction increase metacognitive awareness in released-time seminary students? Second, if metacognitive awareness is increased, is this increase correlated with changes in released-time seminary students' attitudes towards scripture study, their scripture study behavior, how they perceive the quality of their study, and how much they enjoy studying the scriptures? A control group and two experimental groups were used for this study. Experimental group 1 was taught basic scripture reading strategies without metacognition. Experimental group 2 was taught metacognitive strategies related to scripture study. Students in each experimental group used these strategies for 10 consecutive class sessions. Pre- and post-survey data was collected for comparison. Statistically significant gains in metacognitive awareness were found when comparing the pre- and post-survey scores of experimental group 2. When comparing experimental group 2 to experimental group 1 and the control group, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) demonstrated that these gains in metacognitive awareness were not significant by comparison. Students in experimental groups 1 and 2 were asked to rate themselves in the post-survey on the effort they expended utilizing the strategies presented. When students in experimental group 2 who rated themselves high for effort were isolated, an analysis of covariance yielded statistically significant gains for metacognitive awareness in comparison with the other two groups. The same analyses were performed on measures related to scripture study. While experimental group 2 showed statistically significant gains from pre-survey to post-survey, when analyzed against experimental group 1 and the control group, no significant changes were observed. This was also the case for students who rated themselves high for effort in implementing the strategies presented. The results from this study suggest that metacognitive strategies can increase metacognitive awareness in released-time seminary students when they put forth the required effort to learn them. Further research in metacognitive application to scripture study is warranted. Qualitative studies with small focus groups could be a valuable avenue of exploration in future studies.

This thesis is a study dealing with active and inactive L.D.S. couples and their comparative Marital adjustment. The couples were selected from the geographic areas of Enterprise and Logan, Utah, and Preston, Idaho. Respondents consisted of couples who had at least one child, but no children beyond high school age. Their religiosity was determined by the bishop of the L.D.S. Ward of which they were a member. The bishop considered such factors as attendance at regularly scheduled church meetings and contributions made in the form of tithes in determining whether a couple was considered active or inactive. The sample consisted of 40 active couples and 20 inactive couples. Hypotheses tested in this study were (1) L.D.S. couples who are active in church activities have a higher degree of marital adjustment than those couples who are inactive. (2) L.D.S. couples who are active will rate their marriages as happier on the continuum scale of happiness than will couples who are inactive. (3) Church activity of the part of both husband and wife contributes to the rapport and marital success of the couple. (4) Couples who are least active will be less likely to participate in the study; therefore their marriage adjustment may not be discovered. In testing the hypotheses subjects were given a modified marital adjustment inventory used by Locke, plus questions pertaining to church activity and a set of background questions. The questionnaires were given directly to the subjects by the investigator or were sent by mail to subjects with a letter of instructions. Findings of this study appeared to indicate that active couples had a better marital adjustment. Adjustment scores for active couples ranged from a low of 71 to a high of 123 with an arithmetic mean of 107.80. Adjustment scores for inactive couples ranged from a low of 60 to a high of 121 with an arithmetic mean of 99.15. A "t" ratio of 3.86 was obtained, which is significant at the level of .01 level of significance. It is to be noted that when adjustment scores of active husbands were compared with inactive, the difference was not so significant. It only approached significance at the .05 level of significance; still active husbands had somewhat higher adjustment scores the arithmetic mean of active husbands was 108.45 compared with 100.95 which was the arithmetic mean for inactive husbands. The difference between active and inactive wives was more significant. Active wives had an arithmetic mean of 107.15 as compared with 97.35 for the inactive. This difference approached significance at the .01 level of significance. A conclusion of the study is, church activity appears to be a factor contributing to the happiness of the couples and to the adjustments of their marriages.

The objectives of this study were first, to examine the attitudes of L.D.S. (members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; also commonly known as the Mormon Church) senior citizens living within the city limits of Logan, Utah regarding certain of their personal adjustments during old age (a personal adjustment score was derived from a scale developed by Cavan, Burgess, Havighurst and Goldhammer, 1949); and second, to determine whether selected variables were related to these attitudes toward personal adjustment. The variables examined in determining this relationship were chronological age, sex, marital status, the individual's definition of present health, length of time in current housing and the degree of social involvement. Each of the following four variables proved to have a positive, significant association with the personal adjustment attitudinal score--chronological age, marital status, the individual's definition of present health and degree of social involvement. The two remaining variables are sex and length of time in current housing. Neither of these latter two was found to be significantly associated with the personal adjustment score

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of religiosity on the pursuit of education and the perceptions towards education among college students at Utah State University (USU). The study focused on what religious variables were useful in predicting postsecondary educational pursuit and either positive or negative educational perceptions among students at USU. From a systematic random sample of 1,460 USU students, a correlational research design was used for this study. Multiple linear regression (MLR) techniques were used to determine which of the various measures of religiosity provided the greatest degree of predictive value for ascertaining educational pursuit and educational perception. A stepwise multiple regression model was used to determine statistical significance of the predictors. Survey methods were used to gather the necessary data. From the results of MLR, seven independent variables (gender, religious practice, parental education, marital status, religious affiliation, positive religious experience, and ethnicity) correlate significantly with four constructs concerning educational perceptions and pursuits (school experience, academic attainments, family pressure, and influences). Of the seven independent variables revealed by MLR to be significant predictors of educational pursuits and perceptions, the measured constructs concerning religiosity were found to be generally less important than the demographic factors.

This story suite is a work of autobiographical fiction, a coming of age tale which uses a young girl’s relationship to horses—along with various people and places connected to the horse world—as its narrative theme. The collection is comprised of twelve chapters, including an Introduction and Prologue and much later, an Interlude and Conclusion. While the first person narrative voice is maintained through most of the chapters herein, the Interlude uses second-person perspective. Additionally, NOW DEPARTING is written in the present narrative tense. Poems are interspersed throughout the work, between chapters, as transitional bridges for the reader.