This study compares the attitudes of academically gifted rural students with those of their classmates with regard to their communities and their aspirations for a sense of place. Although West Virginia, a largely rural state in Appalachia, is considered by outsiders as a place of deprivation, despair, and backwardness, an aspiration for a sense…

Emphasizing the fact that rural youth in the U.S. are heterogeneous in their values, backgrounds, cultural heritages, and aspirations, this paper cites literature and studies which indicate that within the last 10 years rural youth have become more alike than different from their urban counterparts in values, attitudes, life goals, and mobility…

Factors contributing to Native students' college success were examined in a study of 50 Native freshmen and 42 non-Native freshmen at the University of Alaska in the 1973-74 academic year. The study compared students in relation to three common explanations of college success: level of academic preparation, goal orientation, ease in the campus…

To determine if the greater the degree of personal or social control the individual experiences, the less likely it is that he or she will behave in a deviant, delinquent manner, 257 male and 229 female high school and introductory-level college students residing in rural Tennessee were group-tested by their instructors during regularly scheduled…

During a 3-month period ending in January 1977, questionnaires were given to 889 eighth and twelfth grade students to determine the extent of drinking among rural teenagers in Idaho, and the sociological and psychological factors affecting their drinking habits. At least 16% of 8th graders and 34% of 12th graders drink frequently. A much higher…

The Educational Testing Service evaluated the Sesame Street educational television series to determine the extent to which it accomplished its stated objectives during its first year. Research results showed that Sesame Street benefited children from low-income inner-city areas and isolated rural areas as well as children from middle-class…

About 62.8 million of the total U.S. population live in the South; of these, about 10% live in the "rural" South. Young people (under 25 years of age) constitute almost half of the total population in the South--29.4 million. Over one-third of all southern people are under 18 years of age. The racial composition of the youth population…

Based upon empirical data derived from a "Mikrozensus-Zusatzbefragung 71" in the Federal Republic of Germany (456,310 people), general patterns and determinations were analyzed relative to the sectoral, occupational, and vertical social mobility of the agricultural population both inside and outside the rural sector. Employing…

Studied families in the Iowa Youth and Family Project for the social and developmental pathways by which adolescents approach decisions to relocate. Found that lack of socioeconomic opportunity, relatively weak and declining ties to family and religious community, and strong educational prospects were potent factors. Also found that plans to…

Tested a family process model that links family financial resources and parental educational attainment to academic competence during early adolescence on 90 rural African American youths ages 9-12 and their parents. Parental educational attainment was linked with family financial resources and with parental involvement with the adolescent's…

In contrast to persistent "culture of poverty" explanations, studies of seemingly irrational risk-taking behaviors among West Virginia adolescents found that early pregnancy and dropping out of school were related to lack of economic opportunity and decline of traditional community cultural patterns without acceptable alternatives.…

The relationship between gender and the race/geographic area of students and their Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) score gains after participation in one of two test preparatory programs was studied. Black (n=181) and native-born Appalachian white (n=67) high school juniors were selected on the basis of high scores on the California Achievement…

Data from a self-administered questionnaire survey of all 188 high school juniors and seniors who attended the only high school in a rural county in Kentucky were utilized to explore various dimensions of youth political culture in that county. The study was part of a continuing effort to understand and analyze the political culture and…

Rural high school girls face a strong home-versus-career conflict stemming from traditional rural values and myths about women. They also face the reality of few local job opportunities, due to rural economic and value structures and to occupational sex-stereotyping. For the most part, rural secondary vocational education maintains its…

A 1973 study of 341 Mexican American nonmetropolitan high school sophomores in South Texas and 300 Mexican American sophomores and seniors in El Paso high schools and a 1978-79 replication study of 89 metropolitan and 65 nonmetropolitan Mexican American youth explored the difference in their Spanish-English language usage patterns. Both studies…