Coltri, Marzia A. “Modest Fashion: Global Perspectives on Identity and Culture.” Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review (2025).

This article examines modest fashion as a dynamic cultural phenomenon spanning diverse religious traditions, including Islam, Judaism (with a specific focus on Hasidic women’s dress), Christianity, Mormonism, New Buddhist dress practices, New Religious Movements (NRMs), and Rastafari culture. The study explores how these varied religious communities negotiate clothing as a form of spiritual identity, cultural resistance, and personal expression. By analysing the intersections of fashion, religious belief, and global market trends, the research demonstrates how modest dress transcends simple religious prescription, instead of functioning as a complex mode of self-representation and cultural dialogue. The analysis reveals how contemporary fashion industries adapt to these diverse modest fashion traditions, challenging previous Western-centric narratives of clothing and religious expression.

Campbell, Courtney S., and Kelly Sorensen, eds. Moral Visions: Ethics and the Book of Mormon. University of Illinois Press, 2025.

Though used by millions as a guide for how to live one’s life, the Book of Mormon’s links with contemporary ethics remain largely unexamined. Courtney S. Campbell and Kelly Sorensen edit essays that spotlight and encourage further thought on these connections.

Contributors in the first section discuss foundational issues such as the Book of Mormon’s moral psychology, its minimalist and covenantal moralities, the nature of the good and how the good is known, the question of whether value depends on a certain kind of future, the Book of Mormon’s strategy for moral persuasion, and God’s participation in human choices. In the second section, the essayists turn to everyday ethical questions concerning resistance to forced cultural assimilation, clothing and dress, authority, and memory. The final chapter further explores practical moral visions.

A rich and thought-provoking analysis, Moral Visions examines the Book of Mormon through a variety of methods while aiming to deepen understanding of both the text’s messages and its potential place in future discussions of ethics. Contributors: Daniel Becerra, Courtney S. Campbell, Ryan Davis, Michael D. K. Ing, Ariel Bybee Laughton, Kimberly Matheson, Rachel Esplin Odell, Kelly Sorensen, Joseph M. Spencer

Lovgren, Anika, Hillary E. Swann-Thomsen, and Nicki L. Aubuchon-Endsley. “Maternal substance use and infant temperament in health professional shortage areas: socioeconomic and religious influences.” Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology (2025): 1-18.

Design/methods

Using longitudinal data for 96 women and their infants in a health provider shortage area (HPSA), we examined the relationship between infant temperament and maternal alcohol and caffeine use, and SHS exposure prior to, during, and 6?months following pregnancy. We also assessed the relationship between religion, social support, employment status, and income with maternal substance use. Substance use was quantified via a semi-structured timeline follow-back interview and infant temperament was measured using the Infant Behaviour Questionnaire-Revised Short Form.

Results

SHS exposure was negatively correlated with infants’ perceptual sensitivity. Non-Latter-day Saints religious affiliation was associated with alcohol use during pre-pregnancy, prenatal, and postnatal periods and caffeine use postnatally. Greater annual income was associated with less prenatal alcohol use and SHS exposure. Those without a college degree consumed more caffeine during pregnancy and were exposed to more second-hand smoke before, during, and after pregnancy.