Essay

What Happens to Society When Families Grow Weaker

By Annalee Blonquist

We live in what the scriptures call “perilous times” (2 Timothy 3:1)—a time when “all things” are increasingly “in commotion” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:91).

Natural disasters, disease, civil unrest, political conflict, and deep social divisions have caused many people to wonder what the world will look like in the years ahead.

One answer depends on the condition of the family.

In The Family: A Proclamation to the World, prophets and apostles warn:

“We warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.”

Why would prophets connect the disintegration of the family with calamities affecting individuals, communities, and nations?

Because families are not only private relationships. They are where people first learn trust, responsibility, sacrifice, commitment, identity, and love. When families are strong, they help strengthen the communities and societies around them. When families become unstable, the effects often spread beyond the home.

Why the Family Matters to Society

In 2009, Elder Russell M. Nelson taught:

“If there is any hope for the future of nations, that hope resides in the family. Our children are our wealth; our children are our strength; our children are indeed our future!”

Children learn how to treat others, solve problems, keep commitments, and respond to difficulty largely through family relationships. Families also provide care across generations, helping children, parents, and grandparents support one another.

This does not mean that every family is perfect or that people from difficult families cannot flourish. It means that family relationships have consequences beyond the people immediately involved.

The pattern appears in scripture and history: societies are more likely to flourish when marriage, family responsibility, faith, and care for children are treated as important. When those commitments weaken, societies often become less stable.

What History May Teach Us

Several scholars have examined the relationship between family structure, sexual morality, marriage, and the rise or decline of civilizations.

Joseph Daniel Unwin studied major civilizations and smaller societies across approximately 5,000 years. He argued that societies with strong norms of monogamous marriage were more likely to develop cultural energy and stability. He also believed that when societies adopted less demanding sexual customs, their cultural strength often declined.

Sociologist Pitirim Sorokin similarly argued that stable civilization depends on marriage being treated as a social norm and sexual conduct being restrained outside marriage. He viewed the weakening of marriage as one sign that a civilization might be moving toward decline.

These historical theories should not be treated as simple formulas. Civilizations rise and fall for many reasons, and no single study can explain every society. But they raise an important question: What happens when a culture stops treating marriage, fidelity, self-control, and responsibility for children as essential?

Elder Robert D. Hales taught:

“So fundamental is the family unit to the plan of salvation that God has declared a warning that … the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.”

The warning is not meant to create panic. It is meant to help us see what is at stake.

The Family and the Sacredness of Life

The weakening of the family is also connected to a weakening respect for the sanctity of life and for the divinely appointed means by which mortal life is created.

When marriage and family are viewed as optional or temporary, children can increasingly be treated as obstacles to personal plans rather than as individuals with eternal worth and responsibilities of their own. When sexual intimacy is separated from commitment, family life, and responsibility, the effects can reach far beyond the people involved.

The family is one of God’s ways of protecting relationships, children, and the future of society.

That does not mean that people who come from broken families are without hope. It means that God’s pattern for family life offers a structure capable of protecting human dignity and helping people flourish.

Family History Can Build Resilience

The family can also strengthen people by helping them understand where they came from.

A study by Marshall Duke, Amber Lazarus, and Robyn Fivush examined children’s and adolescents’ knowledge of family history. The researchers found that knowing more about one’s family was associated with higher self-esteem, a stronger sense of personal control, better family functioning, greater family cohesiveness, lower anxiety, and fewer behavior problems. (Read the study through PubMed.)

The study found a relationship between family knowledge and well-being; it did not prove that learning family stories automatically causes these outcomes. Still, the connection is meaningful. Family stories can help children understand that they belong to something larger than themselves. They can learn about relatives who faced hardship, made mistakes, showed courage, or found ways to recover.

Knowing where we came from may help us believe that we, too, can face difficulty and continue forward.

This is especially meaningful for Latter-day Saints. The Abrahamic covenant, temple work, and the turning of the hearts of fathers and children all point toward the importance of family connections across generations.

Hope for Families in Troubled Times

Elder Bruce D. Porter taught:

“Regardless of what the future may hold, God has ordained that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, the parents of the Church will be given power to help save their children from the darkness around them. As the hearts of fathers and mothers turn to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents, we eventually will witness the rise of a generation refined and prepared to meet the Savior at His coming. The triumph of God’s kingdom in the latter days will be a triumph not only of the Church as an organization but of tens of thousands of individual families who by faith have overcome the world.”

This promise does not mean that faithful parents will never face hardship. It means that God can strengthen families even in difficult conditions. Parents can receive help to teach, protect, correct, forgive, and love their children. Children can be strengthened by turning toward righteous parents and other faithful adults.

The future of society will not be changed only by political leaders or institutions. It will also be shaped quietly in homes where people choose faithfulness, responsibility, forgiveness, and love.

What Can We Know About the Future?

We may not know exactly what the world will look like in one year or ten years. We may face greater challenges, unexpected changes, and circumstances we cannot yet imagine.

But we can know where hope is found.

God promises hope and ultimate joy to those who keep His commandments through the power of Jesus Christ. As we strengthen families—past, present, and future—we help create the kind of homes and relationships that can withstand difficult times.

The family is not a side issue in God’s plan. It is one of the central ways He teaches His children how to love, serve, sacrifice, repent, endure, and become like Him.

Questions to Consider

• Why might the condition of families affect the strength of communities and nations?
• What values taught in the Family Proclamation help families remain stable during difficult times?
• What family stories have helped me understand courage, faith, or resilience?
• How can Jesus Christ strengthen families even when the world around them is unstable?