Professor Alan Hawkins of BYU School of Family Life was an invited speaker at this year's Australian Family Association conference held in Brisbane in May, with the theme Marriage and the Culture War. Professor Hawkins spoke on Revitalising Marriage and Avoiding Divorce.
Professor Hawkins' focus in research has been on the importance of fathers, and more recently on government educational initiatives to help couples form and sustain healthy marriages and relationships. He has also made statements questioning the wisdom of same-sex marriage, as well as on the role of pre-marital counselling and classes, and other laws to reduce divorce rates.
Professor Hawkins was invited to speak on ABC Radio while in Australia, addressing the topics of revitalising marriage and avoiding divorce, where he stated "families that are deeply involved in their faith have a kind of protective factor that surrounds their family and their children in terms of helping them and preventing them from taking some of those unfortunate side-steps that youth in our society often do take."