The study's purpose was to determine the degree to which homogeneous rural youths living in an economically impoverished region might be vulnerable to anomia, powerlessness, and deviance given varying levels of perceived limitations in opportunity and self-ability. Comparative data relative to earlier studies in rural areas was also provided.…

This study reports on levels of achievement among rural black and white Southerners of relatively low socioeconomic status. The 262 persons who were the objects of the study were reared in Millfield, North Carolina. They were first studied by Baughman and Dahlstrom (1968) in the early 1960s when they were in the eighth grade. Ten years later, this…