Based on the rural life experiences of Iowa children who grew up during the great farm crisis of the 1980s, this book focuses on successful adolescent development and its links to the social resources of families with ties to the land. In 1989, the Iowa Youth and Families Project began a panel study of 451 two-parent families in north central…

In Iowa in the 1980s, dreams of prosperity were suddenly replaced by economic nightmares as plummeting land values generated economic decline and dislocation in rural communities and individual lives. This book examines the experience of over 400 Iowa families who lived through the Great Farm Crisis and now face an uncertain future. Interviewed as…

For many years, farmworkers in Zimbabwe have been a marginalized and neglected community. This book describes the lives of hired farmworkers' children in their own words. Over 850 children aged 10-17 were interviewed or wrote essays in English or Shona. Nearly all the children were in elementary school in grades 4-7. Many farm children undergo…