Food insecurity (FI) is often assessed through experienced-based measures, which address the number and extent of coping strategies people employ. Coping indices are limited because, methodologically, they presuppose that people engage coping strategies uniformly. Ethnographic work suggests that subgroups experience FI quite differently, meaning…

This paper studies multidimensional poverty for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Mexico and Uruguay for the period 1992-2006. The approach overcomes the limitations of the two traditional methods of poverty analysis in Latin America (income-based and unmet basic needs) by combining income with five other dimensions: school attendance for…

Using rural household survey data collected from 1000 female household heads selected from all the ten administrative regions in Ghana, this paper explored the policy implications for using ICTs for empowerment of rural women. A contingent valuation (CV) method was used to quantitatively estimate the influence of selected socio-economic factors on…

We looked closely at families who remain in persistent deep poverty in the remote rural areas of one state, using welfare reform as the contextual backdrop. We examined the lives of 10 women who have participated in this qualitative research for over 6 years. The woman heading each family was a welfare program participant; she engaged (more or…

Employing data from the 1980, 1990, and 2000 March supplements of the Current Population Surveys, this study examines changing household and family structure in metro and nonmetro areas and corresponding changes in poverty, emphasizing female-headed families with children under age 18. We also pay particular attention to the structure and economic…

A sample of 120 low-income families receiving food commodities in 3 eastern South Dakota counties provided a socio-demographic overview of family characteristics; tested the Culture of Poverty approach for classifying rural, low-income families; tested the homogeneity among these families; and presented implications for policy-making and program…

Interviews with 247 homeless families (including 480 children) in 21 rural Ohio counties found that over two-thirds were headed by young single females. The most frequently cited reasons for homelessness were family conflict or dissolution and economic factors. Implications for service provision and policy development are discussed. (LP)

According to a 1981 questionnaire survey of 2,554 heads of rural households in 10 Southern states, rural people perceived that the most serious barriers to securing employment in Southern rural areas were job shortages, lack of personal or political contacts, insufficient training or education, and lack of job information. Respondents perceived…

Most of the nonmetropolitan poor live in a household with at least one worker. In 1987, 70% of nonmetro poor family heads who were not ill, disabled, or retired worked for at least part of the year, and 24% worked full time, year-round. The employed proportion of the poor was significantly larger in nonmetro than metro areas. Despite a lengthy…