In June, BYU professors Sam Hardy and Justin Dyer published research regarding religious deidentification and its effects on young people.
It suggests that many mental and emotional problems worsen when youth step away from religion. The study is made up of youth from California, Arizona and Utah, roughly half of which are or were affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Dyer, who teaches religious education, explained that the work began in 2016 with a sample of 652 religious 12-14 year-olds. Every two years, the group was surveyed about their mental and emotional functioning.
The functioning was split in terms of positive attributes, including self-esteem and purpose — and negative attributes, like sexual risk-taking and suicidal ideation.
Nine years later, Hardy and Dyer found several patterns. Chief among them is an increased amount of negative functions in those youth who have left religion.
For example, the youth were reported to have a less robust sense of purpose than their peers. Such feelings of futility was found to get worse since leaving their faith.
Dyer pointed out that these findings may be contrary to the thought process that many who leave religion experience.
“I think a lot of people [say] that, ‘I’m having such a rough time with religion that if I leave, things are going to get better for me,'” Dyer said.
This study’s findings would suggest that the gradual emotional improvement people expect after leaving doesn’t actually come. At least, not in the way they expect.
Another finding that interested Hardy and Dyer was that the shifts toward negative functioning were much more severe for those leaving The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints than for several other religions.
Hardy said this is characteristic of what is deemed a “high-cost religion,” or one where more effort is required to follow the religious standards.
“If you leave a church that requires a lot of commitment and it’s really important to you, there’s more of a dramatic impact,” he said.
Part of the impetus for this study is a phenomenon Hardy referred to as the “rise of the nones,” or the increasing number of Americans who no longer associate with religion.
“In the ‘90s, it was like single digits, the number of people in the U.S. that didn't identify as religious,” Hardy said. “Now, it’s about 30 percent.”
Dyer also spoke to this phenomenon, adding that with the decline, “we have experienced a significant increase in mental health problems, particularly among the youth.”
Both Dyer and Hardy shed light on the self-perpetuating reality that a lack of religion and increased mental health difficulties create.
“There’s somewhat of a bidirectional link between mental health,” Hardy said. “People who have more suicidality and depression are going to be more likely to struggle with their faith.”
Indeed, their findings suggest that a vicious cycle is created for those struggling in which a lack of faith spawns increased issues, which then drive them further away from the connection and comfort found in the religious setting.
Jared Warren, a BYU psychology professor, specializes in positive psychology, or as he puts it, “the science of well-being.”
“There’s a difference between surviving and actually thriving,” he said regarding his studies on positive psychology. “It’s the recognition that there’s more to a good life than just the absence of psychopathology.”
Warren had a lot to say about how positive psychology principles can be utilized to support those displaying risk factors related to purpose, inclusion or other functionalities from the study.
“Belonging to a religion cultivates purpose, also probably helps people cultivate a sense of gratitude,” Warren said. “One of the challenges would be, if a young person is leaving religion, where do they get this?”
Warren clarified that religion is not the only place someone can develop these positive functionalities. In fact, he said that everyone needs to figure out for themselves how they can find those positive attributes.
He calls this process “honoring the search,” where one overcomes dissonance and discomfort to reach a place where they can flourish and develop a positive life. That journey is unique for everyone.
The researchers will continue collecting data from their sample, with another survey going out to participants in 2026. Hardy and Dyer hope that their findings will not only show the short-term effects of deidentification, but also its effects into adulthood.