Families in troubled times
Subtitle: adapting to change in rural America
By: Rand D. Conger and Glen H. Elder, Jr., in collaboration with Frederick O. Lorenz, Ronald L. Simons, and Lee B. Whitbeck.
Contributors: Elder, Glen H.
Series: Social institutions and social change
Publisher: A. de Gruyter
Published: 1994
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 303
Subjects: Rural families -- Iowa -- Economic conditions; Rural families -- Iowa -- Social conditions; Family -- Iowa -- Psychological aspects; Stress (Psychology); Social change -- Iowa
Description: The turbulent decade of the 1980s began with financial calamity in several sectors of the United States economy, from automaking to agriculture. The rural Midwest experienced its worst economic decline since the Depression years. Thousands of farmers lost their operations, and the small rural communities that serve agriculture often changed from prosperous business centers to struggling villages with many empty buildings and boarded-up storefronts along their main streets.

Families in Troubled Times examines the plight of several hundred rural families who have lived through these difficult years. The participants in the Iowa Youth and Families Project, the subjects of the present study, include farmers, people from small towns, and those who lost farms and other businesses as a result of the "farm crisis." The book traces the influence of economic hardship on the emotions, behavior, and relationships of parents, children, siblings, husbands, and wives.

The results of the study show that although economic stress has a powerful adverse effect on individuals and families, countervailing social influence can help to blunt these negative processes and to assist in the repair of the personal and interpersonal damage they produce.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 275-292) and indexes.