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Journal of Rural Social Sciences

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Articles 391 - 420 of 467

Full-Text Articles in Rural Sociology

Editor's Note, Douglas C. Bachtel Dec 1995

Editor's Note, Douglas C. Bachtel

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

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Farm Families Moving To Town: An Analysis Of Farm Population Declines, Don E. Albrecht Dec 1994

Farm Families Moving To Town: An Analysis Of Farm Population Declines, Don E. Albrecht

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Recent census data indicate that, in all regions of the country, an increasingly large proportion of individuals and families operating farms in the United States are choosing to live in urban and rural communities rather than on the farmstead. In this paper, hypotheses are developed and tested to help explain and understand this phenomenon, and the variations that exist from county to county. County-level data from the 1978 and 1987 Census of Agriculture and the 1980 and 1990 Census of Population are analyzed. It was found that counties with larger proportions of farm families living in the community include those …

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Community Impacts From A Temporary Military Deployment: The Case Of Fort Stewart, Ga., Warren Kriesel, Gina L. Gilbreath Dec 1994

Community Impacts From A Temporary Military Deployment: The Case Of Fort Stewart, Ga., Warren Kriesel, Gina L. Gilbreath

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

The rural South has long been a popular location for the installment of military bases. Small Southern communities around these installations have experienced many social and economic changes due to operational changes in the base. Even the slightest alterations have a ripple effect on residents who rely on the base for local economic stability. Although many studies have examined the impacts associated with military base closures, this paper addresses a related but not identical problem. Using a combined rural sociological and agricultural and applied economic perspective, an analysis is made which examines the local social and economic disruption caused by …

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Antecedents Of Infant Mortality: An Analysis Of Risk Factors In Rural And Urban Arkansas, Shannon M. Holman, Frank L. Farmer, Russell S. Kirby, Bruce L. Dixon Dec 1994

Antecedents Of Infant Mortality: An Analysis Of Risk Factors In Rural And Urban Arkansas, Shannon M. Holman, Frank L. Farmer, Russell S. Kirby, Bruce L. Dixon

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

This research examines the relationship between social and biological characteristics of the infant and mother and the probability of infant survival through the first year of life. The research also includes a consideration of the influence of residence (rural vs. urban). Employing linked birth and death certificate data for Arkansas (1985-1989), a logit model was estimated to assess the impact of social and biological factors on the probability of survival. The results indicate that metropolitan residence is positively associated with infant survival, but only at a marginal significance level. Other notable results include the importance of prenatal care and a …

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Dependence In The Rural South, Libby V. Morris Dec 1994

Dependence In The Rural South, Libby V. Morris

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

This article re-introduces the concept of dependence into rural studies and shows that age-related dependence varies greatly by race and location across the South. Youth, elder, and total dependence ratios were calculated for blacks and whites and by metropolitan and nonmetropolitan locations for Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. Total, youth, and elder dependence are higher in nonmetropolitan areas. The highest dependence is in nonmetropolitan counties with high percentages of black population. Total dependence is higher for blacks than whites. This difference is primarily because of the much higher dependence ratios for black youth. Elder dependence is highest in nonmetropolitan counties, and …

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Changing The Health Care System: Opinions Of Rural And Urban Residents, F. Dale Parent, Bonnie L. Lewis Dec 1994

Changing The Health Care System: Opinions Of Rural And Urban Residents, F. Dale Parent, Bonnie L. Lewis

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

This paper examines the opinions of rural and urban residents toward a full health care system provided by the government. The data used in the study come from a statewide poll conducted by the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. Because of a greater need for health care reform in rural areas, it was assumed that rural Louisianians might be more supportive of a government health care system than their urban counterparts. However, analysis of the data indicates that a person's residence had no statistically significant effect on attitudes toward government sponsored health care.

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The Management Of Hunting Leases By Rural Landowners, John K. Thomas, Clark E. Adams, John F. Thigpen Iii Dec 1994

The Management Of Hunting Leases By Rural Landowners, John K. Thomas, Clark E. Adams, John F. Thigpen Iii

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Most of the land in Texas is privately owned and is an important as a source for hunting recreation. Profit maximization theory (PMT) and economic behavioral theory (EBT) were used to explain differences in the net incomes of Texas landowners who sold hunting leases during the 1989-90 hunting season. In 1990, 4,621 landowners who were licensed to sell hunting leases by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department responded to a mail survey. Findings indicated that the statewide median net lease income was $1,100, few landowners considered their leasing operations as businesses, and few practiced intensive management of their operations. Number …

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Assessing Housing Affordability In Rural Georgia, Carol B. Meeks, Anne L. Sweaney Dec 1994

Assessing Housing Affordability In Rural Georgia, Carol B. Meeks, Anne L. Sweaney

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Rural areas and the rural South in particular have unique characteristics that render inappropriate many urban-oriented housing affordability approaches, delivery systems, and programs. In addition, a lack of data for smaller communities makes accurate assessments of the housing stock difficult. This paper explores factors that influence housing affordability. A methodology is developed that policy makers in local communities can use with volunteers to collect reliable data and to develop a local housing agenda which meets community needs. Regression analysis using data from four rural Georgia communities reveals that housing quality plays a role in housing expenditures. The paper concludes with …

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Occupational Attainment And Earnings Among Agricultural Students In The South, Andrew A. Zakeri Dec 1994

Occupational Attainment And Earnings Among Agricultural Students In The South, Andrew A. Zakeri

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Using panel data from a sample of agriculture graduates from Southern land-grant universities, this paper examines factors associated with occupational attainment and income earnings among agricultural students after graduation. Findings indicate that college major and gender were the strongest predictors of occupational attainment, while educational attainment was the best single predictor of income earnings. Compared with their peers with only baccalaureate degrees, highly trained agricultural students earned higher income on their first full-time jobs after leaving college. Policy implications of the findings are discussed.

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Selective Migration And The Educational "Brain Drain" From The Lower Mississippi Delta Region In 1975-80, Donald E. Voth, Molly Killian, Frank L. Farmer Dec 1994

Selective Migration And The Educational "Brain Drain" From The Lower Mississippi Delta Region In 1975-80, Donald E. Voth, Molly Killian, Frank L. Farmer

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Using a unique source of information about migration, this paper calculates the rates of net migration by age and educational level for the Lower Mississippi Delta region for the period of 1975-80, compares different categories of counties in the Delta, and compares Delta areas with non-Delta areas of the seven Delta states. It shows substantial losses of more highly educated persons, especially the young, from all rural counties, but especially for the core rural Delta counties.

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Employment Migration Among Graduates Of Southern Land-Grant Universities, John A. Ballweg, Li Li Dec 1992

Employment Migration Among Graduates Of Southern Land-Grant Universities, John A. Ballweg, Li Li

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

This research addresses the geographic mobility of 2,028 graduates of 15 Southern land-grant universities. Concern was directed toward those who accepted positions outside the state where they graduated compared with those who remained within the state. The study uses panel data involving a 1976-77 survey while students were enrolled in an agriculture curriculum at land-grant schools and a follow-up survey a decade later. Migration patterns were identified and both demographic characteristics and employment history were examined. Migrant graduates were compared with non-migrant graduates according to what they considered important in accepting a first job as well as actual job earnings. …

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Community Structural Changes And The Nature Of Leadership, Gina L. Gilbreath Dec 1992

Community Structural Changes And The Nature Of Leadership, Gina L. Gilbreath

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Many communities in the Southeastern United States have experienced dramatic social and demographic change during the past two decades. Much of this change is brought about by population growth as well as other socioeconomic transformations such as increases in per capita income and educational attainment. One result has been an obvious change in leadership and social structure at the county level as engendered by these population and socio-economic factors. The objective of this research is to examine the nature of leadership and structural change in a Southern county that has been experiencing this categorical type of transformation. More specifically, this …

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Determinants Of Farmers' Satisfactions With Farming And With Life: A Replication And Extension, C. Milton Coughenour, Louis Swanson Dec 1992

Determinants Of Farmers' Satisfactions With Farming And With Life: A Replication And Extension, C. Milton Coughenour, Louis Swanson

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

The purpose of this study is to broaden the understanding of the determinants of farmers' satisfactions with life as a whole and with farming per se by replicating and extending Molnar's 1985 study of the overall subjective well-being of Alabama farmers. Data from a 1982 study of Kentucky farmers are used to accomplish this objective. Molnar's conclusions regarding the individual and structural determinants of farmers' global well-being are generally confirmed. In addition, the farmer's global satisfaction with life is shown to be related to his satisfaction with farming but the structural determinants of global and farm satisfaction differ. Net farm …

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Agriculture, The Environment And Rural Sociology In The South, John K. Thomas Dec 1992

Agriculture, The Environment And Rural Sociology In The South, John K. Thomas

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Agricultural conservation research was revived by rural sociologists in the late 1970s and gained momentum during the 1980s. Most of this research was focused, however, on social and farm organizational factors affecting technology adoption and diffusion. Few studies included environmental factors such as soil characteristics, land physiography, and climate. This paper reviews rural sociologists' recent attention to environmental factors. Next, it describes the ecological and agricultural variation among production regions in the South and overviews Southern producers' participation in federal farm conservation programs. Finally, it prescribes three tasks for rural sociologists in the South to consider if they are to …

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Concern About Eating Genetically Engineered Food, Glenn D. Israel, Thomas J. Hoban Dec 1992

Concern About Eating Genetically Engineered Food, Glenn D. Israel, Thomas J. Hoban

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Concern about eating genetically engineered food is explored for a sample of residents from Florida and North Carolina. Previous research on consumers' food safety concerns and perceived risk associated with food production suggests that concern about genetically engineered food is influenced by three factors. Concern is influenced by how well informed consumers are about food technology, their capacity to understand that information, and the compatibility of genetic engineering with consumers' moral beliefs. Utilizing logistic regression, women and persons who viewed genetic engineering to be morally wrong were found to have greater concern about eating genetically engineered foods. Awareness and educational …

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Job Placement Of Jtpa-Trained Welfare Recipients: Implications For The Jobs Program In Southern And Nonmetro States, Linda M. Ghelfi Dec 1992

Job Placement Of Jtpa-Trained Welfare Recipients: Implications For The Jobs Program In Southern And Nonmetro States, Linda M. Ghelfi

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

The new Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training Program was instituted to provide education, training, and employment for adults receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children. This study uses job placement rates for AFDC recipients trained through Job Training Partnership Act programs to gauge the difficulty participants in the new program may have in finding jobs. The results indicate that, at minimum, there would have been 56 percent more participants in the new JOBS program than there were in Job Training Partnership Act programs had the JOBS program started in the 1986 program year. Only about 60 percent of the …

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Creating Entrepreneurship In Rural Sociology, Rusty Brooks Dec 1991

Creating Entrepreneurship In Rural Sociology, Rusty Brooks

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Southern rural sociology finds itself at an important political, social, and economic juncture. Given present funding constraints, land grant university faculty working in rural sociology must assume a more entrepreneurial posture if the discipline in to survive the challenges that confront it. The emergence of the importance of policy analysis to the agenda of contemporary southern politics provides a "market window" for rural sociologists to contribute to the maintenance and enhancement of rural sociology in the region and to the present and future quality of life in the South. This paper examines these issues and proposes an entrepreneurial model for …

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Editor's Note, Robert L. Moxley Dec 1991

Editor's Note, Robert L. Moxley

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

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Testing Tdm Modifications With Mail Surveys During A Southern Farm Study: A Research Note, John Ballweg Dec 1991

Testing Tdm Modifications With Mail Surveys During A Southern Farm Study: A Research Note, John Ballweg

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Based on data collected during a mail survey of crime and vandalism on farms in a southern state, this study involves a modification of two procedures in the Total Design Method: 1) individually signed cover letters; and 2) replacement questionnaires for the second mailing. While the first procedure was found to have no significant effect on the return rate, the inclusion of replacement questionnaires with the second mailing improved the response rate by a wide margin (more than double the letter-only mailing). The implications of audience type (in this case a farm audience) and other survey design features on response …

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Community Attachment: A Research Note Examining The Effects Of Gender, Stephanie Sayers Fowler Dec 1991

Community Attachment: A Research Note Examining The Effects Of Gender, Stephanie Sayers Fowler

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

The purpose of the study is to examine the effects of gender on feelings of community attachment. This is done through the development of a measure of emotional response to a community, which is then tested, using the techniques of confirmatory factor analysis, for gender variation. The data are from a 1985 survey mailed to 1400 residents of four rural North Carolina counties. Responses from 1200 of these residents provide the sample. The author develops a model which focuses not on the well established relationship between satisfaction with service provision and community attachment, but on the relationship between emotional responses …

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Acknowledgements, Robert L. Moxley Dec 1991

Acknowledgements, Robert L. Moxley

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

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Reaching Extension's Clientele: Exploring Patterns Of Preferred Information Channels Among Small Farm Operators, Glenn Israel Dec 1991

Reaching Extension's Clientele: Exploring Patterns Of Preferred Information Channels Among Small Farm Operators, Glenn Israel

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Effective delivery methods are important to the impact of Extension programs. The effectiveness of delivering Extension programs can be increased by matching the information channels used by Extension to those preferred by segments of the clientele. This study explores the preference patterns of clientele for obtaining information. The influence of selected individual and structural characteristics on those patterns also is examined. Data from a mail survey (using the Total Design Method, or TDM) of small farm operators from six counties in Florida indicate that preference patterns vary. The analysis, using confirmatory factor analysis, verified the presence of a lower cost …

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The Receptivity To Housing Programs In The Rural South, Gladys Shelton, Kenneth Gruber Dec 1991

The Receptivity To Housing Programs In The Rural South, Gladys Shelton, Kenneth Gruber

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Adequate and affordable housing continues to be a serious problem in many rural areas of the Southern United States. This problem has been exacerbated by several major events in the past two decades, including the "population turnaround" in the 1970s, which increased the demand for housing as the number of people living in rural areas increased. The housing affordability crisis then resulted from a spiraling rise in housing costs greater than household annual income and a reduction in federal spending for housing programs. The combined effect of these events suggests local communities must now look more to state level initiatives …

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Editor's Note, Robert L. Moxley Dec 1990

Editor's Note, Robert L. Moxley

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

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Farm Structure And Use Of The Conservation Reserve Program Of The 1985 Farm Bill, Joseph N. Kairumba, Gerald C. Wheelock Dec 1990

Farm Structure And Use Of The Conservation Reserve Program Of The 1985 Farm Bill, Joseph N. Kairumba, Gerald C. Wheelock

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Within the conservation and production objectives that form the current Farm Bill, there are a range of options that encourage uniquely tailored farm plans for each farm and landowner (LO) situation. In this attempt to predict use of one option, the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), three broad sets of farm structure variables were employed. These were farming scale, planning horizon, and farm specialization. A two-stage systematic sample of 437 farm parcels from county ASCS lists resulted in 187 land owner interviews for discriminant analysis. Participation in CRP was most discriminated by two farm size variables--crop acres and gross farm income. …

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The Adaptations Of Farmers In An Era Of Declining Groundwater Supplies, Don E. Albrecht Dec 1990

The Adaptations Of Farmers In An Era Of Declining Groundwater Supplies, Don E. Albrecht

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

In recent years it has become increasingly apparent that modem agricultural practices are resulting in a wide array of environmental problems, and in particular resource depletion problems. As of yet, however, there has been a relative lack of research on the adaptations made by farmers when faced with the depletion of an important resource. This paper helps address this void by exploring the adaptations of farmers (N = 700) in the Texas High Plains to the depletion of their primary source of irrigation water--the Ogallala Aquifer. It was found that the proportion of farm operators who had adopted each of …

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Human Resources In The South: Rural Sociology In The 1990s, Peggy J. Ross Dec 1990

Human Resources In The South: Rural Sociology In The 1990s, Peggy J. Ross

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

This article focuses on the problem of human resources in the South during the 1980s. The author contends that the problem is especially critical in the rural South, where the impacts of widespread rural economic stress in the eighties contributed to further underdevelopment of already limited human resources. Educationally, the South not only lags other regions, but the rural South lags the urban South. Furthermore, a wide gap exists in the educational attainment of southern rural blacks and whites. It is argued that the development of an adequate human resources base in the rural South begins with building initiative and …

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1890 Institutions' Extension Program And Rural Development, Adell Brown Jr. Dec 1990

1890 Institutions' Extension Program And Rural Development, Adell Brown Jr.

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

The black land-grant colleges' contributions to developing the rural South are traced back before they were added to the land-grant system by the passage of the Morrill Act of 1890. The 1890 Extension target clientele are small farmers and limited resource persons who were not being reached by the conventional delivery system. Before 1972, the 1890 institutions primarily assisted the 1862 universities to serve black farmers and provide training and housing for black specialists and agents. In 1972, the passage of USDA Appropriation Act, under 3(d) section of the Smith-Lever Act, provided funds for the 1890 institutions to fulfill the …

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Obstacles And Opportunities: Funding Research At The 1890 Land Grant Institutions, Alton Thompson Dec 1990

Obstacles And Opportunities: Funding Research At The 1890 Land Grant Institutions, Alton Thompson

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Similar to other university faculties, faculty members at 1890 land grant institutions are expected to support their research programs with grants from sources outside their institutions. Although the expectation of securing grants has not received the public attention that the "publish or perish" dictum has, faculty at the 1890 institutions seeking promotion and tenure must increasingly demonstrate that they can procure grant funds. Numerous inhibitive factors, however, tend to attenuate the success of 1890 faculty in obtaining research grant funding and in implementing such research projects. In this study, three key factors are examined: political, research infrastructure, and faculty initiative. …

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Institutions Under Influence: The Case Of Knowledge Stratification Within The U.S. Land Grant System, Rosalind P. Harris Dec 1990

Institutions Under Influence: The Case Of Knowledge Stratification Within The U.S. Land Grant System, Rosalind P. Harris

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

The U.S. land grant system is notably stratified in its distribution of knowledge and power. In the upper strata are historically white land grant (HWLG) institutions often referred to as "1862 Institutions," which command power and resources from their historic ability to produce the agricultural and scientific knowledge supportive of state and national economic development goals. In the lower strata are historically black land grant (HBLG) institutions often called "1890 institutions." They struggle against the historical conditioning that has, until recently, restricted their efforts in producing knowledge to the manual applications and teaching of farming. This article examines how historical …

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