Perceptions of 4-H youth development personnel regarding interorganizational cooperation were studied between the perceived and desired levels of cooperative activities between 4-H youth development personnel and secondary agriculture teachers. Results indicated that 4-H youth development personnel wanted higher levels of coordinated efforts…

On the assumption that agricultural extension professionals can do a better job when they know how people feel about their programs, an attitude scale with statements selected to represent degrees of attitude from favorable to unfavorable was administered to 60 farmers in Clinton County, Missouri. Findings indicated an overall positive image…

Account of a family-life film-lecture series for poor farm laborers, primarily men. Some of the topics discussed were: priorities in human needs, family communications, sexuality, family planning and masculine and feminine roles. The program improved the men's ability to communicate and made them more receptive to counseling. (Authors/JB)

Increased opportunities for undergraduate students in agricultural and natural resource disciplines to write for diverse audiences besides their instructor may increase motivation to write and improve student writing skills. The objectives of this teaching research were to determine and compare the initial writing experience of students enrolled…

Responses of 127 agricultural specialists concerning their information seeking and interactive contacts within the Missouri Extension Service revealed an interpersonal communicative network among subject matter specialists with a potential for performing the integration (putting together) function on behalf of farmers. This occurred in an…

A Missouri study conducted to determine agricultural extension usage patterns found that heavy users of extension publications tended to be younger farmers, those with a relatively large amount of land, and pork producers. Extension meetings were a less frequent source of information than either publications or county extension office visits. (LRA)

To strengthen extension programs in the six-county Meramec area of Missouri, the University of Missouri extension staff used Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) funds to train people to survey area rural residents, to provide jobs for CETA workers, and to present extension programs to residents, meshing extension and CETA programs.…

Evaluation of the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program as an antipoverty strategy was undertaken in 1977 by examining activities of paraprofessional Nutrition Education Assistants (NEA's) in the Ozark Foothills area of Missouri to determine how they helped their clientele families become self-sufficient and integrated into the mainstream…

This study investigated the organizational effects of a facet of administrative leadership termed professional leadership behavior (PLB)--defined as the concern for the improvement of professional staff performance. In addition, selected factors were considered for an association with the respondent's perception of the leadership phenomenon.…

Growing concern that the Cooperative Extension Service was failing to adequately reach small farmers with education materials through regular extension channels led to the implementation of Missouri's Small Farm Family Program. In this program, education assistants, many of whom are small farmers themselves, link the educational resources of the…

The integration role of community development agents and the social system in which they work was examined. Their personal capability to act as an integrating agent was inferred from the nature of the specialized training prescribed in the community development master degree program and their prior occupational experience. Operational…

Records maintained by rural extension designees on the Missouri Small Farm Family Program, (initiated in 1972 by the cooperative extension service to help low income farm families learn to use available resources to improve their quality of life) provided data re: family characteristics, farm improvement progress, and improvement in the quality of…

A 1977 study of education assistants' linking role in the University of Missouri's Small Farm Family Program (intended to favor small farmers in providing extension information) focused on conditions influencing ability of education assistants to serve as University information-user system linkers on behalf of small farmers. All Missouri education…

This is an early assessment of the Rural Community Service Coordinator Program (RCSCP), organized by the University of Missouri Extension Service using funds from the federal Food Security Act of 1985. Five full-time coordinators were named by area mental health officials to help rural people cope with despair and emotional disturbances caused by…

The 12 states comprising the North Central Region have been affected in similar ways by the farm crisis of the 1980s. Statewide surveys show sizeable proportions of farm operations that are experiencing moderately high levels of financial stress. The problems caused by chronic stress on family structure and functioning, the loss of mainstreet…