There are stereotypical images of Mormon families floating around - that Mormon kids don't take drugs and Mormon couples don't get divorced.
But images aren't always reality. "Are Mormon families different? Sometimes. What is the typical Mormon family? Atypical," said Tim B. Heaton, a professor of sociology at Brigham Young University.Heaton and Stephen J. Bahr, also a professor of sociology at BYU, reported on two different demographic aspects - family structures and drug abuse - of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And their findings, reported Thursday during the 13th annual Sunstone Symposium at the University Park Hotel, were not what a lot of people expected.
Heaton's research involved national studies of some 20,000 women in 1982, 1987 and 1988, and issues addressed sexuality, marriage and children. Bahr's research involved University of Michigan surveys of 64,000 high school seniors, of which 1,000 were Mormon.
According to Heaton, Mormons have the lowest percentage of individuals who engage in premarital sex of any predominately white religions. But what nevertheless surprised Heaton and other observers was the high percentage of Mormon women who have engaged in premarital sex: 60 percent.
"It's much higher than we might have expected, higher than anyone expected," Heaton said. "And the behavior is increasing." The percentage for other religions was 70 percent to 90 percent.
The surveys show that while similar percentages of Mormon and white Protestant fundamentalist women have premarital sex, the increase in premarital sex has been greater among Mormon women than any other religious group.
The studies also show that only about 12 percent of Mormons have ever lived together without getting married, while 20 percent to 30 percent of those in most other religions have done so. Almost 50 percent of those who listed no religion have cohabited.
Heaton's data, which comes from the National Study of Family Growth and a National Survey of Families and Households, when combined also show:
- Frequent Mormon church attenders abstain from sexual intercourse longer than most non-Mormon women.
- More Mormon women are married than the national average - nearly 69 percent compared to 52 percent. And Mormons marry younger, at 20.6 years, than all but Baptists and fundamentalists.
- The number of children desired by Mormon women is 2.8, 40 percent above women in every other religious or non-religious category. But it reflects a growing attitude among young Mormon couples to have smaller families. "It's definitely lower than previous generations," Heaton said.
- Seventy percent of Mormon marriages are intact after 10 years, the lowest percentage among whites citing a religious affiliation except for "non-denominational."
- Mormons who marry at an older age do not avoid divorce any more frequently than do members of other religions who marry older.
"The church has a dilemma: What do you do when divorce rates go up. Do you help with the process, or do you encourage them not to divorce?" Heaton observed.
Bahr's data indicates that Mormon teenagers who attend church regularly smoke less, drink less and take fewer drugs than their active counterparts in other churches. But the numbers of teens taking part in such activities are nonetheless higher than researchers expected.
Within the month before the survey, 14 percent of the LDS high school students smoked cigarettes, 33 percent drank alcohol, 13.4 percent smoked marijuana, 13 percent took amphetamines and 8.3 took cocaine.
In terms of use of cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana, Mormon teenagers rank significantly lower than other teenagers. And in terms of cocaine and amphetamines, they rank close to total averages.
Inactive Mormon teenagers used all drugs at a significantly higher rate than other teenagers who were inactive in their own religions, Bahr said.
The data appears to confirm national studies that indicate that drug abuse is linked to association with groups, and that churches tend to provide a positive atmosphere to help children avoid drug use.