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Editor:
Tonya Allen
allen@pop.psu.edu
PRInformation
Spring 2005
Note from the Director
The special problems and challenges facing individuals living in non-metropolitan areas of the United States are of interest to a number of researchers at PRI. In comparison with metropolitan regions, rural areas are often characterized by lack of access - to employment, education, health care, and social services. National policies such as welfare reform can have different consequences for rural than for urban populations. Several current PRI projects focus on topics such as educational and employment opportunities and attainment; the impact of welfare reform in rural areas; the impact of rural surroundings on child development; and the specific challenges faced by agricultural and migrant workers.
Researchers in Rural Sociology and Demography Dr. Anastasia R. Snyder, Dr. Diane McLaughlin and Dr. Leif Jensen are currently engaged in a project entitled "Love it and Leave it? The Consequences of Educational and Career Aspirations and Attainment Among Youth in Rural Pennsylvania." A problem endemic to rural Pennsylvania and other parts of rural America is the brain drain of the best and brightest youth. Decisions about educational attainment and career plans shape the labor force and family formation expectations of youth, and can affect where they expect to live their adult lives. This project features a survey of a sample of 2,000 7th and 11th grade students from school districts that represent the variability of conditions in rural Pennsylvania. Analysis of these data will provide critical information about how families, friends and communities affect the aspirations and plans of rural youth. Follow-up surveys of the same youth are planned.
Dr. Ann C. Crouter (Human Development and Family Studies), Dr. Clancy Blair (Human Development and Family Studies), Dr. Linda Burton (Human Development and Family Studies, Sociology and Demography), Dr. Douglas A. Granger (Biobehavioral Health and Human Development and Family Studies), and Dr. Stephen A. Matthews (PRI GIA Core, Geography, Demography, and Sociology) are members of a joint Penn State/University of North Carolina team funded by NICHD for a five-year project, "Rural Children Living in Poverty." The project integrates two complementary strands of research. One component follows 1,300 children from rural counties in North Carolina and Pennsylvania from infancy through age 3 to gauge their biological, emotional and social development. The second component is an in-depth, qualitative, family and community ethnography focused on low-income families with young children from the same non-metro communities. In NSF-funded "Family Resource Allocation in Urban and Rural Communities," Burton, Matthews and Debra Skinner (UNC-Chapel Hill) combine ethnography and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to compare resource allocation in low-income families residing in urban, small town, and rural communities.
Dr. Jill Findeis (Agricultural, Environmental and Regional Economics and Demography) is collaborating with Snyder and Jensen on a new NICHD-funded project, "Well-being of Youth and Migrant or Seasonal Farmworker Families." The migrant farm labor force is critical to agriculture, yet little is known about the circumstances of the families they support. This R03 project will focus needed attention on the youth of migrant and seasonal farm worker families in Pennsylvania. The investigators are particularly interested in how the characteristics of these children and those of their families and communities in which they live, shape their aspirations, expectations and early adult outcomes with regard to educational attainment, labor force participation and family formation. Findeis, Natalie Ferry, and Jensen are co-investigators on another project touching rural issues: "Experiences with Work: The Process of Leaving Poverty Behind," a USDA-funded study which examines differential impacts of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) on rural as compared to urban welfare recipients.
Recent publications have shed light on important questions concerning rural populations. Snyder and McLaughlin (2004, "Female-Headed Families and Poverty in Rural America," Rural Sociology 69(1):127-149) found that the risk of female-headed families with children living in poverty is highest for nonmetro residents. Hema Swaminathan and Findeis (2004, "Policy Intervention and Poverty in Rural America," American Journal of Agricultural Economics 86(5):1289-1296) found that, in constrast to urban areas, welfare reform did not result in a reduction in poverty in rural areas.
PRI's focus on the circumstances of rural populations is both informed by and contributes to the institute's work in contextual, ecological and spatial analysis. Further details on current projects and recent publications are available in this newsletter, and on PRI's web site.
Leif I. Jensen
Director
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