Respecting the LDS/Mormon Minority on Campus: College Students’ Attitudes Toward Latter-Day Saints

Abstract

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints remain a minoritized and marginalized population in the United States at large, a pattern mirrored on the majority of college and university campuses across the United States. This study addresses how social identities, institutional contexts, and intergroup dynamics within the postsecondary education environment contribute to cultivating college students’ attitudes toward LDS/Mormons and Mormonism. Using data collected from 13,584 college students attending 52 institutions across the country, the study employs multilevel modeling to examine these relationships. The analyses highlight the importance of productive interreligious contact in a supportive institutional context for shaping out-group attitudes. Affirming the interplay between social identity and intergroup contact, effects on out-group attitudes vary to some extent by religion/worldview. Implications for research and practice are discussed.