Thesis (M.R.E.)--Brigham Young University, Dept. of Religious Instruction.

Thesis (M.A.)--Brigham Young University, Dept. of Art. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 92-93).

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Department of Sociology. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-95).

Thesis (M.E.)-- Brigham Young University. Dept. of Personnel and Guidance.

The majority of male Ricks College students, while serving as missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, spend two years living in geographically unfamiliar environments. This thesis compares the geographic literacy of those Ricks College males who have served LDS Church missions with those who have not. A test of geographic literacy was administered to 306 male Ricks College students. Returned missionaries demonstrated significantly higher knowledge of general cultural and physical geography than pre-missionanes. In contrast, returned missionaries demonstrated no greater ability to identify global places such as countries and cities. As expected, the returned missionaries possessed a superior knowledge of the regions in which they served.

This study deals with public speaking among teenagers. It is the sincere hope of the writer that this thesis may challenge young people and help motivate them to become better speakers. If it does this then it is partly successful. It may point out some weaknesses and habits in their own style of speaking that are handicaps rather than assets. It may also show some of the strong points of teenage public speaking in general, the writer hopes it will help young speakers want to overcome the trifles of poor speech habits to make their speaking nearer perfection.

Four models of parental identification (perceived similarity with father, perceived similarity with mother, agreement with important parental values and agreement with more trivial parental values) were constructed. The effects of several parenting behaviors (i.e., support, undifferentiated control, guilt and love withdrawl) as well as various structural variables upon the parental identification of a sample of LDS adolescent males were tested. Data were obtained from 565 adolescents and their parents and the data for each boy was linked with that of his parents. Parental support and family religious and recreational activities were found to be the most reliable predictors of parental identification across all models. In addition, father's status variables tended to contribute while mother's parenting behaviors contributed to the explanatory power of the models.

This study tested a multivariate model, which included peer influences, religiosity, personality traits, school experiences, and family characteristics, in predicting juvenile delinquency. The model compared two samples of youth belonging to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (L.D.S.). A mail questionnaire and three follow-up mailings were sent to 1,078 youth living in the Pacific Northwest and 1,849 youth living in Utah county. The overall response rate for the sample was 63 percent. Extensive measures were used in assessing the variables included in the model. Structural equation modeling (LISREL) was used in the analysis because of its capacity to assess measurement error as well as to test the hypothesized direct and indirect effects of family characteristics. The results indicated that peer pressure is the strongest predictor of delinquency. Moreover, even after controlling for peer influences, internalized religiosity had a significant negative association with delinquent involvement. Personality traits, school experiences, and several of the family variables, such as family structure, family conflict, and maternal employment, did not prove to be significant predictors of delinquency after control for the other variables in the model. While no significant direct effects were found, family characteristics did strongly predict delinquency indirectly through heightening levels of youth's religiosity, protecting against peer pressure, and encouraging the selection of non-delinquent peers. Furthermore, gender and religious ecology differences were found in predicting delinquency.

This study investigates the relationship between several independent measures and premarital sexual activity among 1,393 LDS teenagers living along the east coast. Results indicate that among these LDS teens, exposure to pornography is strongly and significantly related to the probability of having engaged in premarital sex. This holds true even when controlling for peer influence, family structure, religiosity, gender, and age. Teens who were exposed to pornography (1 to 24 exposures) are 2.6 times more likely to have engaged in sex as compared to those who report no exposure to pornography. Furthermore, those teens exposed to a higher amount of pornography (25 or more exposures) were 5.7 times more likely to have engaged in sex as compared to those who report no exposure.Other interesting findings show that peer influence, private religiosity, and relationship with mother are also significantly related to the probability of having engaged in sex. Gender is also a significant predictor of sex among this group of teens, however, the females in this sample have a higher probability of having engaged in premarital sex. This finding is different than most other studies on teen sexuality which show a higher probability for males than females.Implications for future research suggest that studies done to determine the predictors of premarital sex among teens should not ignore the potential impact of exposure to pornographic material.

The study was an effort to determine the relationship between certain parental behaviors and church attendance of children of high school age. Eight parental factors, each consisting of certain behaviors, were used: support, coercion, positive induction, and negative induction for each parent. Data were gathered with a self-report instrument which was mailed to a random sample of high school students in Sanpete County, Utah. There were moderate correlations at high levels of significance between four of the parental factors and children's church attendance. Factor analysis demonstrated structural equivalence between six of the eight factors in this study and previous ones. Reliability coefficients were high for seven of the eight parental factors.