Health & Wellness

Celebrating Pride: Understanding the Impact of a Conservative, Religious Upbringing

To celebrate Pride Month in June, a Utah State Today series is highlighting university employees and students who are conducting research, academic pursuits and other projects related to or that benefit the LGBTQIA+ community.

Tyler Lefevor:

Assistant Professor in Psychology Department

  • Area of study: how gender, sexuality and faith influence health

Why is this work important?

“Some LGBTQ individuals feel forced to choose between their faith and their expression of sexuality or gender. Having accurate information about the ramification of these decisions is crucial to empowering LGBTQ individuals to live their best lives.”

Summary of research:

Tyler Lefevor is interested in understanding how sexual and gender minorities flourish, particularly when raised in conservative religious environments. As a queer Mormon, Lefevor maintains close ties to individuals who stay connected with and leave the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Through his research, he hopes to empower sexual and gender minorities who are active in the church as well as those who care about them, to flourish.

Lefevor also maintains an active line of research examining the way in which religion and spirituality influence health more generally. He recently published a meta-analysis that looks at the ways in which religion and spirituality positively and negatively affect sexual minorities.

Lefevor and his team are currently recruiting participants for a study geared to help Latter-day Saint parents navigate difficult conversations with their sexual or gender minority children. Latter-day Saint parents with a sexual or gender minority teen may consider taking part in this project, which involves the parent and their teen each being part of a separate 50-minute interview with Lefevor’s team.


Read more about the research here:

Learn more about Lefevor’s work here:

CONTACT

Emilie Wheeler
News Director
University Marketing and Communications
435-797-0744
emilie.wheeler@usu.edu


TOPICS

LGBTQIA+ 45stories

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