RELATIONSHIP OF ECOLOGICAL RURALITY TO CURRENT LIFE EVENTS, HARDINESS, AND PERCEIVED HEALTH STATUS IN RURAL ADULTS.
Contributors: University of Texas at Austin.
Published: 1986
Number of pages: 177
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: This descriptive study investigated the relationship of ecological rurality to current life events, the personality characteristic of hardiness, perceived health status, and selected demographic information of rural adults. Ecological rurality was measured using four individual items, (current residence, time spent in current residence, place where majority of time was spent from birth to age 17, place where majority of time was spent from age 18 to 35), and three social items (distance from nearest town/city, population of nearest town/city, density of county of nearest town/city). Instruments used in the study included the Holmes and Raye (1967) Schedule of Recent Life Events (SRLE), Kobasa's (1982) abbreviated Hardiness scale containing commitment, challenge, and control subscales, and Engel's (1984) Perceived Health Status (PHS) with its physical, mental, and social subscales.

Findings of the study were based on responses from 162 participants who responded to a mailed questionnaire sent to a random sample of 300 to 3000 members of the Montana Grain Growers Association. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics to describe the sample subjects based on the demographic and ecological rurality items and bivariate correlation analyses to examine the relationships between the study variables.

Levels of the personality characteristic of hardiness in this sample did not differ based on the measures of ecological rurality with the exception of the hardiness subscale of commitment. While all the rural subjects in this study were experiencing a lower level of life event change as compared with studies conducted with urban subjects, events relating to financial status headed the SRLE items checked. Subjects obtained lower scores on the hardiness scale were experiencing higher life event change. Subjects with higher levels of hardiness demonstrated a better perception of their mental and social health but not their physical health.

These findings indicated that life event changes related to economic status effected the level of hardiness demonstrated by this sample. Because of the homogeneity of the sample with regard to demographic variables and the majority of the ecological rurality items, replication of the study is suggested with other rural populations in order to determine the usefulness of the ecological rurality variables. The study findings support multidimensional assessment of perceived health in relation to hardiness; viewing health from more than a physical dimension will be important in the planning and evaluation of future nursing intervention studies.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-06, Section: B, page: 2374.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN, 1986.

School code: 0227.