Families in Troubled Times: Adapting to Change in Rural America

by Rand Conger

Overview

This book documents the experiences of rural Iowa families, who lived through the "farm crisis" years of the 1980s, in a fashion that might help families of the future cope more successfully with economic reversals. The documentation could be used to fashion more effective social policies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780202304885
Publisher:	Transaction Publishers
Publication date:	12/31/1994
Series:	Social Institutions and Social Change Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	316
Sales rank:	699,175
Product dimensions:	5.81(w) x 8.81(h) x (d)
Lexile:	1430L (what's this?)

About the Author

Rand Conger

Table of Contents

Part I. Families and Hardship 1. Families in Troubled Times: The Iowa Youth and Families Project 2. Analyzing Family Stress and Adaptation: Methods of Study Part II. Rural Families and Communities 3. Rural Economic and Social Trends 4. Families Under Economic Pressure 5. Survival, Loss, and Adaptation: A Perspective on Farm Families 6. Children in the Household Economy Part III. Husbands and Wives 7. Family Origins of Personal and Social Well-Being 8. Doing Worse and Feeling Worse: Psychological Consequences of Economic Hardship 9. Economic Stress and Marital Relations Part IV. Adolescent Development 10. Economic Pressure and Harsh Parenting 11. Resilient and Vulnerable Adolescents 12. Sibling Relations During Hard Times Part V. Reviewing the Evidence 13. Family Stress and Adaptation: Reviewing the Evidence

Editorial Reviews

This excellent collection examines the impact of the 1980s farm crisis on family stability. The Iowa Youth and Family Project interviewed four members from each of 451 selected rural families in north-central Iowa. Using a "family stress model" that effectively integrates structural and social psychological variables, the papers explore how economic hardship disrupts the lives and emotions of family members within one of three broad areas—economic changes in rural families and communities, marital relations, and parenting. Many of the findings parallel similar research from the Depression. The project discovered that the crisis rippled throughout the region, affecting not only those families losing their farms but also nonfarm families in farming-dependent communities... The implications for all families, rural or urban, required to adapt to economic restructuring are significant. Upper-division undergraduates and above.” —W. P. Anderson Jr., Choice

From the Publisher