As rural communities undergo substantial demographic and economic changes, understanding the migration intentions and their antecedents of rural elderly persons becomes increasingly important. Using data drawn from a survey of adults from 24 rural Utah communities conducted in 2008, we examine whether rural residents 60 years of age or older plan…

Religious communities are important sources of bridging and bonding social capital that have varying implications for perceptions of social cohesion in rural areas. In particular, as well as cultivating cohesiveness more broadly, the bridging social capital associated within mainline religious communities may represent an especially important…

Explores relationship between per capita expenditures (inputs) for selected public services (law enforcement, education, medical, libraries, parks) and two output measures (objective performance measure and subjective measures of 8,882 citizens' perceptions in 100 different size counties in North Carolina.) Indicates per capita expenditures are…

Interviews with 75 leaders in 5 rural Missouri communities identified "sense of fit" and community evaluation as dimensions of leaders' community attachment that were related to each other but were associated differently with leader characteristics such as education. Leaders' local attachments appeared to inhibit linkages to outside…

Linear development and systemic models of community attachment were tested using survey responses of 415 nonmetropolitan Utah residents. Community size did not have independent inverse effects on community attachment dimensions: involvement, amity, and sentiment. Community size and five social position variables produced interactive effects.…

Data from 92 towns in northern New York were used to examine the influence of community social-class composition on both de facto and de jure discrimination against such housing. The positive influence of population growth on mobile-home occurrence was found to be conditioned by intercommunity class composition. (JHZ)

There is a relationship between changes in satisfaction with community services and community group membership (businesses, community leaders, households), but changes in attitudes towards individual services are not related to changes in overall community satisfaction, based on a three-year study of such services in three rural Alabama counties.…

In two rural isolated communities in Appalachia and northern New England, differences in local economic opportunities and social capital have produced different social contexts, which vary in extent of social stratification and stigmatization and isolation of the poor. Interviews with low-income women reveal community differences in opportunities…

Examines congruence of attitudes toward economic development between rural community residents and local government officials in rapidly growing northern New Hampshire. Profiles and compares survey subjects' sociodemographic characteristics, community tenure, and general attitudinal disposition. Results highlight substantive differences between…

Evaluates the hypothesis that boomtowns enter a period of generalized crisis and loss of traditional values/attitudes; considers impact of energy development on residents' involvement in/attachment to their community, and perceived quality of community services. Uses linear and systemic models on data from three intermountain communities…

Results of a multiple discriminant analysis suggest that, although current residence and occupation are correlated with a rural culture, place of residence at age 16 along with several personal demographic features such as religion, income, and age, are more central to understanding the broader concept of rurality. (Author)