Dear Father is a memoir of one year of the life of Shelly Fankhauser. Experiencing the death of her grandfather and husband, she is forced to reexamine her basic belief system as a New Zealand Maori LDS woman. Through her losses and the process of her grief, she discovers the identity that she was struggling to find did not come from her culture or her religion as she had once thought, but from within herself.Dear Father is an autobiographical account of finding inner strength and discovering hope.

This thesis examined the differences between 30 clinical and 30 non-clinical Mormon married couples on the perceived and ideal cohesion scores on the FACES III family typology instrument. Two three-way analyses of variance were done to examine these differences. the results provided evidence that there were significant differences between cohesion scores in clinical and non-clinical couples Both the clinical and non-clinical ideal scores fell close to the enmeshed end of the cohesion dimension of the Circumplex Model. The mean perceived cohesion scores, however, showed a difference between the clinical and non-clinical couples. The clinical couple mean scores fell in the disengaged category while the non-clinical couple cohesion mean scores were in the connected category, close to the enmeshed category cut-off score.

This study examined the influence of parental divorce on the attitudes of young adult members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) toward marriage and family life. A sample of 180 students from three universities completed self-report questionnaires measuring various attitudes toward aspects of marriage and family life. The results indicated that parental divorce alone was not a significant predictor (p.≤.05) of young adults' attitudes toward marriage and family life. The one difference found was that young adults' coming from divorced families-of-origin were less attracted to the idea of commitment and sacrifice involved in a marriage than those coming from intact families-of-origin. Limitations, implications for future research and clinical implications were also discussed.

It has been observed that not all L.D.S. Seminary students are active in church attendance. There is little doubt in the minds of educators that parents affect a great deal the activities of their children.The purpose of the study was to learn what relationship, if any, existed between a seminary student's church attendance and the church activities of his parents, and to find out which, if any, of five specific areas of parental church activity had the most positive effect on a student's church attendance.Based on his experience in the church, the writer chose the following areas of church activity as the ones most likely to affect a seminary student's church attendance,1. the parents have been married in the temple.2. the parents hold a church position.3. the parents have served a regular mission.4. the parents have served a stake mission.5. the parents attend church regularly.Information cards were sent to every seminary in the church and were completed by approximately 60,000 students. A 5 per cent stratified sample was used in tabulating the data for the study. These cards were designed to obtain information about the church attendance of the seminary students and the church activities of their parents.

The history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in South America between 1945 and 1960 shows growth in numbers of members and strength of those members. The church grew more than 1000 percent during those fifteen years and almost half of all South American branches came under the direction of local, native leadership. The three new missions organized were evidence of the growth being made. Church building was stepped up and Church literature in Spanish and Portuguese became plentiful.Some problems encountered were opposition of the prevailing church, misunderstandings with government, and the inefficiency of transportation and services. Visits of General Authorities inspired members and missionaries and gave direction to the work, and new and inovative proselyting techniques were employed, such as sports and music programs, which helped the work flourish. Lamanite areas in South America that were opened were found to be among the most receptive to the gospel message.

The first section of this thesis is a diachronic examination of second person pronouns in English with special focus on variations in usage such as pronominal shifting between thou (and related forms) and ye (and related forms), as well as an examination of the second person pronoun usage in the English Bible (especially the King James Version) with a similar focus. From the thirteenth century on variations in usage have been common.The second section is a synchronic examination of second person pronouns as used by Joseph Smith and some of his contemporaries, followed by an analysis of these pronouns in the Book of Mormon. Also included is a brief discussion of Book of Mormon textual variants and revisions, especially as they pertain to pronouns of address. The second person pronoun usage and pronominal shiftings in the Book of Mormon are similar to that of other works of Joseph Smith's day except for the use of thou (and related forms) when addressing a group as individuals. This pronoun usage seems more characteristic of biblical or Hebraic usage than that of English historically.

The literature on educational problems and procedures gives considerable emphasis to objectives. Sometimes called aims, goals, or values, the objectives have been variously formulated according to the philosophy and environment of their authors. Great variation is found in the many codes of objectives which have existed and which now are used in education.In examining the code of general objectives which has been published and circulated throughout the Latter-day Saint Seminary System since 1943, the writer was of the opinion that these objectives were not fully used by the seminary teachers and that they may not be those really desired for the system. In essence, the problem of the thesis was to trace the development and use of codes of objectives for the seminary teachers, and to analyze the present objectives in the light of their current usage.

Previously, no one has analyzed the short stories of Mormon periodicals from their inception in the late nineteenth century until 1940. The body of this study attempts to do so and has two main aims.First, it evaluates the literary development of largely sentimental stories written for Mormon youth. Sentimentality in fiction was an extreme form of romanticism which flourished in America throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century. As other forms of realistic writing became more acceptable in the nation, Mormon writers gradually accommodated their literary styles to conform with national trends. They retained a significant amount of sentimentality in their short stories, possibly to preserve their religious and cultural values.Secondly, this study describes the sociological implications of Mormon short stories. This aim is secondary to the literary aim but none the less valuable for students interested in discovering Mormon cultural trends as they are reflected in Mormon short stories.

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.

It was hypothesized by Olson and his colleagues (Olson, et al., 1983) that "Mormons" were more likely to be enmeshed than many other cultural/religious groups. The purpose of this study was to determine if individuals affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) scored significantly more often in the enmeshed category of the cohesion dimension of the Circumplex Model, using FACES III data, than the norming sample for the FACES III instrument. The study also examined the level of satisfaction that the Mormon sample expressed for their level of cohesion. Data from 61 L.D.S. married couples living in the three major urban counties of Utah were compared to the FACES III norming sample using chi-square and t-test procedures. The L.D.S. sample scored significantly more often in the enmeshed category than the norming sample, both for individual and couple mean scores. Those L.D.S. couples in the enmeshed category were significantly more satisfied with their level of cohesion than those in the lower categories of cohesion.