The mental health crisis, especially among young people, has filled the headlines in recent years. Researchers have begun to consider how religious and spiritual practices are associated with better mental health.

Scholar Jonathan Haidt notes “There is ample evidence for the effectiveness of spiritual practices such as meditation, prayer, confession, and penance rituals” and “there is ample evidence that pursuing certain spiritual practices increases well-being” because these practices often “reduce self-focus and selfishness” which encourages one to become more open to or merge with something beyond oneself. what prepares.

In fact, the potential benefits of spiritual practices are now widely accepted scientifically (even among atheist academics like Haidt).

But there is one religious practice that has not been examined until now for its connection to mental health: temple attendance by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A recent large, randomly sampled study of Latter-day Saint youth found that temple attendance was positively associated with mental health. It is also, for many, about faith sustained over time.

after a while 30 second summary this research Since the temple attendance has been viewed over 250,000 times on social media, it seemed useful to provide additional information.

We are starting a new study

We started in 2016 Family Foundations of Youth Development researchIt was designed to better understand adolescent well-being and how faith develops throughout adolescence and into young adulthood.

To this point, very few studies have been done on Latter-day Saint youth, and those that do exist mostly include small samples of Latter-day Saints. Unfortunately, obtaining a representative sample of Latter-day Saint youth is both difficult and expensive.

As a Foundation team, we decided that, with our limited resources, we would survey Latter-day Saint youth in Utah, the largest and most concentrated area of ​​Latter-day Saints, and then expand to Arizona and California. Although this clearly overlooks important differences between Latter-day Saints in these regions and Latter-day Saints in other parts of the United States and the world, this seemed the best place to begin such a study.

Young people have been surveyed every two years since 2016; An Arizona sample was taken in 2018 and a California sample was taken in 2020. We re-surveyed all participants in 2020, 2022, and 2024 (we are just completing 2024 data collection). In total, more than 2,000 young people and one of their parents attended. Approximately half of our sample are Latter-day Saint youth, and the other half are youth of other religions or no religion at all.

The importance of random sampling

We worked with a research firm Data Axel to get the sample. They collect publicly available data providing information on more than 200 million households. We identified the areas we wanted to survey and purchased a random sample of households with young people, recruiting them by letter and telephone. A person could only participate if they were randomly selected (no “snowball sampling”).

Exploring youth temple participation

One of the things we were interested in was temple attendance: how often young people go to temple, predicting whether they will go to temple, and what the impact of temple attendance might be.

temples one an important part of worship at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Temples are being built at a historic pace all over the world. Beginning in the year a Latter-day Saint youth turns 12, they can enter the temple to participate in certain ceremonies.

For analysis of youth temple attendance this research report We used the examples of Utah and Arizona. Because we only had two waves of data for California, there was too much missing data to make an accurate assessment. However, we will soon include California with our 2024 data collection.

So what did we find?

First, about 90% of 12- and 14-year-olds go to temple at least a few times a year, with only 10% never going. 61% of 12-year-olds went at least once a month. However, this decreased dramatically by age 18. Thirty-two percent of 18-year-olds had not gone to temple in the past year, and only 28% went to temple at least once a month.

What affects what?

We also examined whether aspects of religiosity (family prayer, personal prayer, scripture study, belief in restoration, etc.) were related to temple attendance between ages 12 and 18.

However, looking at all this, the question arises as to what causes what. For example, do religious beliefs and practices lead to increased temple attendance, or does temple attendance lead to increased religious beliefs and practices?

This is the perennial “chicken and egg” problem in this type of research. Short of an experiment (which is impractical in this type of research), the best we can do is follow people over time and see what comes first. This is what we call establishing “temporal ordering” and provides some evidence for causality.

The impact of prayer and scriptures

Thus, in our “chicken and egg” analysis, we found evidence of reinforcement of family prayer and temple attendance throughout adolescence. Families who pray together also help their children attend temple, and temple attendance appears to strengthen their family prayers.

The 14- and 16-year-olds’ scripture studies were related to increased temple attendance two years later. In other words, the more they read their scriptures, the more likely they are to become more involved in the temple over time. But there was little evidence that temple attendance increased scripture study.

Nurturing an enduring commitment to faith

We also examined whether temple-going children were less likely to leave church at some point in their adolescence. Our analysis did indeed find a link.

An estimated 33% of children who had never attended the temple in 2018 reported being disconnected from the Church by 2022 (i.e., they chose to be a Latter-day Saint in 2018, but later chose not to be a Latter-day Saint). Saint’s Day in 2022).

But only an estimated 12% of monthly templegoers in 2018 had lost connection by 2022.

Additional analyzes suggest that one of the reasons why temple attendance predicts departure is because temple attendance is linked to increased beliefs in restoration, including the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and President Russell M. Nelson as a prophet.

Promoting deeper emotional resilience

Finally, we looked at how temple attendance was related to mental health. Temple attendance was associated with less depression at ages 12, 14, 16, and 18, and less anxiety at age 18. What about the “chicken and egg” question? Could temple attendance predict better mental health, but could poorer mental health also predict less temple attendance?

From our analyses, we found that depression at age 14 was associated with decreased temple attendance at age 16. But greater temple attendance at age 16 was associated with less depression at age 18. Mental health problems at younger ages may be affecting teenagers. refraining from joining the temple. Temple attendance later in life may have a beneficial effect on mental health.

It’s no surprise that temple attendance positively impacts mental health. Much of the research over the decades has found that religion is associated with better mental health. So it’s no surprise that temple attendance is linked to better mental health.

Important qualities

It’s important to understand that this research is about averages. Although temple attendance may be more likely to experience less depression over time, we cannot definitively determine causality and it is possible that temple attendance has a different association with depression in individuals. For example, there may be some people who have difficulties with temple worship and find it difficult to find the positive effects described here.

We caution against those who interpret this to mean that temple attendance alone will somehow cure their or their loved ones’ depression. The problem here is that if someone doesn’t find their depression improving in a similar way, “what’s wrong with me?” one might think. and we fall deeper into depression.

As with other mental health interventions (exercise, good sleep, healthy eating, therapy, medication, etc.), we shouldn’t: 1) Think they’re a magic bullet, 2) Take them to extremes, or 3) Assume everyone is. will be affected in the same way.

There are also people who experience scrupulosity (a category of OCD that focuses on religious behavior), which research has found could mean that their mental health would improve if they attended the temple obsessively. If we use the temple only as a tool to improve our mental health, we will likely be disappointed and miss the basic purposes of the temple, namely, to gather Israel on both sides of the curtain and worship the Lord.

Better mental health will be a result of these core goals. In the process of temple worship, we are reminded of our covenants and can be filled with gratitude and determination to live them. As President Nelson said in April 2024: “The temple is the gateway to the greatest blessings God has in store for each of us.”

Scholarship supporting the sacred

It’s no surprise that studies have found temple attendance to be associated with better mental health. While we acknowledge individual differences, we need not shy away from acknowledging the positive effects that most people experience. Parents and leaders are advised to broadly emphasize temple attendance while ministering individually to those who are struggling.

Justin Dyer is Professor of Religious Education at Brigham Young University and a BYU Wheatley Institute Fellow. His current research focus is on the relationship between religion and mental health.

Sam Hardy is a professor of psychology at Brigham Young University. He is a developmental psychologist whose research focuses on religious development in adolescence and adulthood.

Michael A. Goodman is Professor of Religion at Brigham Young University and Deputy Publications Director of the Center for Religious Studies. The focus of his research is on the well-being of adolescents and young adults, with a particular emphasis on suicidality.