Month: February 2004

A: Unfortunately, we are not the best group to contact for information on this as we deal less with the psychotherapeutic aspects of Mormonism than with the sociological aspects of Mormon life.  Nonetheless, based upon our contacts we came up with several sources that may provide additional information.

First would be LDS Family Services.  They do not provide any information specifically concerning incest, but they do have information about child abuse:

http://www.providentliving.org/familyservices/strength/0,12264,2120-1,00.html

Their site doesn’t provide email contact information, but there are locations in most of the 50 states and they may have additional information for you.

The majority of the sites and groups that were mentioned by the members of the MSSA deal primarily with polygamy, though some deal with incest resulting from polygamous marriages:

http://www.childpro.org/
http://www.helpthechildbrides.com/
http://www.polygamy.org/

Finally, there are a number of non-LDS related resources that offer support:

http://directory.google.com/Top/Society/Support_Groups/Sexual_Abuse/
http://attorneygeneral.utah.gov/
http://www.hsdcfs.state.ut.us/

Another individual recommended the following text for survivors of incest:
Toxic Parents : Overcoming Their Hurtful Legacy and Reclaiming Your Life by Susan Forward

A: The clearest study examining differences between ‘ideal’ (intended) and ‘actual’ (achieved) family sizes is: Heaton, Tim B., Kristen L. Goodman, and Thomas B. Holman. 2001. “In Search of a Peculiar People: Are Mormon Families Really Different?” Pp. 87-117 in Contemporary Mormonism: Social Science Perspectives, 2nd ed. Editors Marie Cornwall, Tim B. Heaton, and Lawrence A. Young. Illinois: University of Illinois Press.

Heaton et. al., on p. 98 (Table 5.4) show that ideal family size for Mormon males is 3.93 children and for Mormon females it is 4.61. This is contrasted to actual family sizes of 2.64 and 2.96 children for Mormon males and females, respectively. To put this into perspective with the rest of the U.S. population (non-Mormons), the ideal family size for males is 2.72 children and for females 2.78 children; actual family sizes are 1.63 and 2.04 for non-Mormon males and females, respectively.