Abstract

In an effort to cope with forces which would remove the home from its place of influence, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently inaugurated the Family Home Evening Program. Emerging out of a fifty year history of efforts to institute the home evening practice, it is one of the most systematic and comprehensive efforts to date to implement change within the structure of its member families.

Such a deliberate and predetermined effort toward improving the family system constitutes what applied social scientists call "planned change." Home evening, when adopted, has many of the elements of a behavior known as "family ritual." Inasmuch as the church has attempted to institute a ritual practice which the family itself would normally initiate, the Family Home Evening Program becomes, to the social scientists, an interesting social experiment.

The family itself must ultimately make the decision as to what extent it will adopt any advocated innovation. Factors within the culture of individual families will play a prominent role in determining to what extent they will be susceptible to the influence of a change agent. This then, becomes a starting place for the investigation of the family home evening. Within this context, the present investigation had two objectives: (1) to explore patterns of family home evening acceptance and adoption, and (2) to explore the relationships between acceptance and adoption of family home evening and certain selected variables.

Degree

MS

College and Department

Family, Home, and Social Sciences; Family Life

Rights

http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

1967

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etdm413

Keywords

Mormon church, Family home evening program

Language

English

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