To support rural postsecondary students' college access and completion, researchers, policy makers, and educators need a more comprehensive understanding of their demographic characteristics and financial needs, especially compared to nonrural students. Previous rural-nonrural analyses have not disaggregated students by degree type (bachelor's,…

Much of the Northwest Region (Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington) is rural in nature. A characteristic of the extractive economies such as timber, agriculture, mining, and fisheries is that they are generally located in small communities isolated by distances. While schools in these communities face the same challenges as those in…

In this paper, Norwegian research on the relationship between the school and the local community during the past 30 years is reviewed. The Norwegian context of schooling is briefly described, pointing out the rural-urban conflict. The review is organized into two phases: research in the expansive and contractive phases of the Norwegian welfare…

Purpose: The overall purpose of this exploratory research was to better understand rural educators' feelings about school-based sex education in order to foster better communication and collaboration between prevention researchers and rural teachers and administrators. In order to accomplish this purpose, the research question asked "How does…

The dramatic slowdown in population growth in Appalachia since 1980 is the result of a sharp change in migration patterns. Both the metropolitan and nonmetropolitan populations increased much more slowly than in the United States as a whole, with metropolitan growth rates lagging farther behind the national rates. (BRR)

Examines rural-urban differences in mortality over time in North Carolina. Finds greatest risks of dying in urban areas, but the differential is not as strong as in the past; infant and neonatal mortality reversal and increase in residence differential over time; and residence differentials generally hold for Whites and non-Whites. (NEC)

Twenty-five rural educators completed a 12-item Q-sort on stress factors. Resolving parent/school conflicts was the most stressful, followed by handling student discipline, and completing reports on time. The stressors varied somewhat from stressors listed by urban teachers, but only slightly. (BRR)

To examine effects of ethnicity, SES, and residence on students' participation in formal clubs, activities, and sports, a survey was administered to 1,450 students at a county-wide consolidated high school in southern Appalachia. The purpose was to investigate the significance of Appalachian ethnicity as an explanation for behavior and to…

The causes of rural/urban educational inequalities are multiple and diverse, and their analysis requires multi-disciplinary, longitudinal research. In this Polish study, preliminary examination of macrostatistical data on rural/urban disparities revealed the limitations of dichotomous analysis. In a broad, in-depth approach designed to develop a…

Questionnaires from 220 young, married subjects were used to examine effects of community size on social-exchange orientations in marriage. Reward level explained 54.8 percent of the variance in marital adjustment for urban women but only 28.1 percent for rural women. Rewards of "money" and "information" were better predictors of adjustment for…

The 1970's ushered in widespread population deconcentration, seen in the pervasive shift of the United States population down the size-of-place scale. To document population changes in various sized places in the country from 1950 to 1980 and to show the pervasiveness of urban-rural deconcentration in nonmetropolitan areas, researchers examined…

Reports the effect of valuing in-kind benefits as income and contrasts the resulting changes in reported poverty rates in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. Finds consideration of in-kind benefits such as food stamps and Medicaid does reduce the reported number of poor, but incidence of poverty remains higher for nonmetro areas. (LFL)

Conceptual analysis of two perspective-taking tasks identified a number of subtasks calling for equivalent operations of social reasoning within tasks of different content. Subtasks hypothetically formed a logical and developmental sequence of abilities required for decentering. The developmental significance of the hierarchy was tested among 121…

Survey of 185 Washington rural mental health center professionals reveals moderately high levels of job/lifestyle satisfaction and higher levels of readiness for rural life/work among those taking rural courses/practicum during their educational experience. Study supports concept of anticipatory socialization correlating with higher levels of…

Reports on findings from a study of 217 schools in Manitoba designed to scrutinize how principals of large and small schools in urban and rural settings perceived the effects of environmental constraints. (MLF)