This paper describes causes of mental retardation in rural America, preventative methods, and factors impeding preventative approaches in rural settings and offers principles for tailoring traditional preventative methods for rural areas. Relevant findings of research conducted by the National Rural Project, American Council on Rural Special Education (ACRES), ACRES Futures Task Force, and National Rural Education Research Consortium are included. Higher poverty ratios, educational disadvantagement, inadequate prenatal care, and lack of early intervention programs for disabilities are found to contribute to the socio-familial factors that make mental retardation more prevalent in rural than in urban areas. Value differences, lack of prevention-oriented programs and failure to understand, value, or use available programs are found to inhibit prevention. Principles and suggestions for implementing retardation prevention programs in rural areas are given, including recognizing diverse rural subcultures and designing programs to consider their values and needs, recognizing and using local communication and power structures, using inherent positive community attributes, transforming negative attributes into facilitating factors, and initiating realistic interagency collaboration in rural service agencies. These principles are related to a tabular presentation of causes of mental retardation, preventive approaches, and specific rural factors which inhibit prevention. (LFL)