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Delineates the various dimensions of disengagement that have been suggested in the gerontological literature and tests hypotheses derived from three competing theoretical perspectives of aging: role, activity, and disengagement. None of the theoretical models successfully explained the relationships analyzed using a sample of rural elderly respondents (N=384). (Author)

The purpose of this article is to examine the integration of rural society into the larger society in two settings with diverse religious institutional structures, more specifically, to examine the contributions to integration of the flexible and diversified religious institution of rural Appalachia in the U.S. as compared to the more or less monolithic and state-controlled rural church in Greece. This examination and related analysis will underscore a rural transition theory implying that in order for rural religious institutions to effectively undergo the institutional reorganization that integration into the larger society requires, they must demonstrate the flexibility needed to satisfy the social and social psychological needs of the differentiating segments of developing rural populations. Rural church organization in Greece is part of a national bureaucracy. Ministers, although they are usually subsidized by local communities, are government employees. The lack of separation between church and state has its roots in the years of Turkish occupation of the Balkan states when priests were not only important community leaders, but, like the family, also were entrusted with the perpetuation of national identity.

The purpose of this paper is to summarize the results of the Puerto Rican investigation of the determinants of levels of living and to present a replication of the research in the Dominican Republic. The results of then studies may be expected to provide insight into the developmental process in the post-industrial society insofar as non-economic determinants of level of living are concerned. The Puerto Rican study showed that household level of living is more a function of social than of economic components. This finding was compatible with the assumption that some minimal level of economic development is necessary for increases in level of living. However, once certain levels of economic development are attained, further increases in level of living are primarily due to variations in the life styles of community members. The authors also concluded that the effects of she economic components would also be tempered by the world view of community members regarding physical and/or social isolation from commercial markets.

This article focuses on a study related to variations in fertility in Puerto Rico. A major finding of the analysis was that within social classes there are significant variations in fertility which were related to life style. Especially noteworthy was that the life style approach differentiated within the large lower class group that appeared to be homogeneous in terms of criteria such as income, education, and occupation. The Dominican Republic also has one of the highest rates of natural increase in the world; the crude birth rate, estimated to be in the 45-50 per 1000 range, is nearly twice as high as that in Puerto Rico. The population of the rural Dominican Republic is a peasantry characterized by very low levels of living, actual or functional illiteracy, and subsistence agriculture. Neither income, occupation, education, nor religion differentiate the fertility patterns within the masses of this relatively homogeneous universe.

The article presents information on the community development in the neoteric community. A basic principal of community development has been that change must be accomplished through a modification of the existing culture. Implicit in the assertion that successful change programs must be based on existing culture is the assumption that all major social norms are deeply ingrained in tradition. Groups that have experienced very rapid change inevitably will lose much of their traditional heritage. Such a condition could develop where the basic means of subsistence have been suddenly and rather completely disrupted. Nancie Gonzalez has recently proposed using the term neoteric to refer to societies whose cultural roots are very shallow. She describes the neoteric society as the societies which are neither primitive nor peasant, in which traditions are absent or very shallow, and which may be said to have risen only recently in time. Primitive societies are the ones in which the producers control the means of production, including their own labor, and exchange their own labor and its products for the cultural defined equivalent goods and services of others.

This study examines the relationship between fertility, social class, and styles of life in Puerto Rico. Styles of life are viewed as behavioral constellations selected among available cultural alternatives and manifested in the manner in which goods are consumed. The survey instrument included 43 different behavioral items believed to reflect viable cultural alternatives. Using a principal components solution and varimax rotation procedures, the first four factors were initially selected to characterize life-style components. Cross-tabulations were made on completed fertility by employing both Hollingshead's Social Classes and the Style of Life typology. The style of life approach systematically differentiates fertility patterns within what the Hollingshead procedure would indicate to be a homogeneous group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent theory and research in social gerontology have placed major emphasis on the relationship between activity and morale. Many dimensions and measures of activity have been employed in this research literature. The present research focuses on the lifestyle dimension, following the Maddox (1975) definition of lifestyle as systematic patterns of activity, and attempts to operationalize this concept in a systematic fashion. First, smallest space analysis is applied to data on the activities of a sample of Southern rural aged, identifying two distinct lifestyles. Next, measures of participation in these lifestyles are included as intervening variables in a multivariate causal analysis of the social determinants of individual morale. The results of this analysis suggest that the impact of activity for morale depends on the social organization of activity in the local setting. If so, this organization of activity, or lifestyle dimension, is critical to analyses of the relationship between activity and morale. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper attempts to examine the principal factors that influence the level of living in the rural communities of Puerto Rico. Information for the study was obtained by interviewing an adult in each household. The dependent variable for analysis was a new level of living scale. The scale indicates the utilization of material possessions in order to more efficiently perform household functions that must be met in all societies. The significance of the study is documented by the greater importance of social rather than economic components in determining level of living.

The purpose of this study was to construct a level-of-living scale that is valid cross-culturally. Level-of-living and related socioeconomic indices have been widely used in social science research. All of these scales have been culture-bound and seldom, if ever, even adequate for longitudinal studies. New approaches for measuring such phenomena are needed. Previous level-of-living scales have been based on possession of items rather than on their functional use. For this study a list of functions fulfilled within the household through the utilization of material items was compiled. Gradations in technological efficiency in performing these functions were given weights ranging from one to five. Functional alternatives to the items listed are permitted. The resulting 14-item household level- of-living sale was tested by use of data from rural Georgia, Puerto Rico. and the Dominican Republic Evidence is presented that the instrument is a valid and reliable measure of level of living. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study the relationship between specific latent social roles (cosmopolitanism and localism) and the migration of Georgia physicians was examined. Questionnaires were sent to a control group (consisting of physicians who had not moved from 1950-1960) and an experimental group (physicians who had moved within the state from 1950-1960). The authors found that: (1) seven individual measures of cosmopolitanism were associated with migration; (2) some variables "traditionally" considered important factors in migration were not associated with the migration of physicians; (3) the latent roles of physicians are mote important in determining theft propensity to change location than variables "traditionally" discussed in migration studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on bulletin reviews related to rural sociology. Some of the bulletins are "Progress of Rural and Urban Students Entering Iowa State University, Fall, 1955," by William S. Folkman that focuses on rural-urban residence related to college experience. "Farmers and Urban Expansion: A Study of a Michigan Township," by Charles Press and Clarence J. explores the validity of the proposition that farmers who devote full time to farming and who operate large farms have backgrounds, styles of life and attitudes particularly toward urbanization. "Family and Farm Changes Associated With Farm and Home Planning in Washington," by Walter L. Slocum and Owen L. Brough reports results of a field experiment designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the farm and home unit as a method of agricultural extension.

This study tests the hypothesis that the acceptance of an innovation in a medical care practice follows the same patterns as the acceptance of approved farm practices. The health practice used in testing the hypothesis is the acceptance of the Salk polio vaccine. The data for the study were secured from a representative sample of 701 households in Greene and Hancock counties located in the Piedmont section of Georgia. Contrary to expectations there were not the relationships between individuals receiving polio vaccine and the sociocultural factors previous studies had indicated were associated with the acceptance of approved farm practices. One unexpected result was the significantly higher percentage of Negro children receiving the Salk vaccine than whites--a result that could account for most of the other unexpected associations. A more intensive analysis of data and special interviews were made to find an explanation for the greater acceptance of polio vaccine among nonwhites than whites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological changes in communication and transportation make it possible for many farmers to reside away from their farms with few, if any, sacrifices in farm management. Consequently, those interested in farming as a business rather than as a way of life may choose to live in areas of population concentration, because of the social, educational, and economic advantages to be found there. The hypothesis is advanced ‘that as American agriculture becomes more industrialized, the non-resident farmer will increasingly control these industrialized operations.’ Using data from the United States Census, the study reveals: (1) an apparent tendency for commercial farmers to live more and more in non-farm areas (and this trend is countered by the increase in part-time and ‘residential’ farmers living on farms); (2) the major areas of nonresident farming in the United States are Southern California, Utah, the Wheat Belt, the Rio Grande Valley, and the Florida Peninsula; (3) off-the-farm residence by the operator reaches a maximum on farms with large acreages, grossing over $25,000 a year, specializing in cash crops requiring only seasonal attention, and operated by a manager, part-owner, or cash or crop-share tenant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sewell Socio-economic Status Scale has been widely used during recent years. This scale has not been revised since it was originally standardized for Oklahoma farm families using 1937 data; therefore, its present validity and reliability may be questioned. In the present study, 689 schedules from a sample of Oklahoma farm families taken in 1947 are used in restandardization. The procedure followed evaluates the original scale while constructing a new one. The internal consistency technique followed by Sewell was used in selection among the original thirty-six items plus one other-use of a deep freeze unit. The analysis showed that eight of the original items (which were, therefore, omitted from the revised scale) no longer differentiate sufficiently among socio-economic classes. Weights were calculated for the remaining 29 items using the sigma scoring method. The coefficient of correlation between the resulting scale and the original was so great (.986) that adoption of the revision does not seem justified. It is concluded that the Sewell scale is still a valid and reliable measure of socioeconomic status for Oklahoma farm families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]