Helping young people achieve their life goals of marriage is deeply important because a happy marriage is one of the best predictors of life satisfaction for men and women. Accordingly, in this report from the Institute for Family Studies and the Wheatley Institute, we sought to find the top attitudes and behaviors that were predictive of a high quality and stable marriage in a recent survey of married men and women.

This year marks the tenth fielding of the American Family Survey, a collaborative effort between the Wheatley Institute and Center for the Study of Elections and Democrat at Brigham Young University and the Deseret News.

Wheatley Religion Fellow Samuel Wilkinson co-authored an article for the Deseret News on the history of the relationship between psychiatry and religion. Despite longstanding negative assumptions from early psychiatry, many modern studies have found strong links between religious attendance and lowered risks of depression and anxiety.

Wheatley Family Fellow Jenet Erickson was quoted in a New York Times article covering recent discussion on federal family legislation. Erickson, who previously co-authored an essay in 2021 with Vice President JD Vance emphasizing the importance of stay-at-home parents, reiterated the natural capacities of mothers to bond with their children.

Wheatley Institute Constitutional Government Director, James Phillips, wrote a blog post for The Federalist Society analyzing Mahmoud v. Taylor oral arguments heard last week in the Supreme Court. The case involves claims of religious liberty and parental rights brought by parents in Montgomery County, Maryland schools over elementary and pre-K school curriculum regarding sexuality and gender issues.