Wheatley in the News

The larger empirical record offers little support for sweeping claims of harm and substantial evidence that religious participation is linked to women’s flourishing. Indeed, devotedly religious women tend to enjoy better mental health, better physical health, live significantly longer lives and enjoy better social and relational health.

Wheatley Institute's Religion and Human Flourishing Director, Paul Lambert, Wheatley Affiliate Scholar Justin Dyer, and data scientist Stephen Cranney highlight their research on the decline of religious affiliation, but the rise in religious belief in The Dispatch's article titled, "Sacred Staying Power."

The top 10 articles of 2025 from Institute for Family Studies featured two articles from Wheatley Institutes Director of Family Initiative Jason Carroll and Wheatley Fellow Brian Willoughby.

In her Deseret News article focused on what Congress or others could to help families flourish, Lois M. Collins cited the Unprotected from Porn report from 2025 on how age verification should be mandatory for pornography websites. In addition, the article stated from the report that, "Parents should not be left to safeguard their children from an unregulated industry of sexual media... which have been given de facto impunity to capture a spellbound audience of underage children."

Perspective: You shouldn’t need Ballerina Farm money to put family first

Although retention is not as high as it once was, for Latter-day Saints it has remained remarkably robust across every major indicator of religious life. They lead the nation in church attendance, personal and family religious practice, and active retention, including among Millennials and Gen Z.

"While most people aren’t “overtly hostile” to marriage, they’re becoming “indifferent” to it because they don’t see “its utility or its advantages”—even though family scholars across the political spectrum agree on its economic, social and individual benefits."

"They took on one of the thorniest issues of the day from the heart of the culture wars and treated each other with dignity. They didn’t attack each other; they contended with each other’s ideas and only after working hard to understand those ideas."

The 2025 American Family Survey is live. The launch event, that took place on November 14, was published online to view by C-Span.