Investigates ambivalence in adult children's relationships with their aging parents and in-laws. Focuses on factors predicting adult children's ambivalence toward parents and in-laws within a gendered kinship structure that shapes these relations. Concludes that ambivalence is a useful concept for representing the complexity of parent-child…

Examines differences between rural farm and nonfarm families on the extent and quality of relationships between adolescents and their grandparents, with emphasis on linking relationships. Grandchildren in farm families have more contact with grandparents and rate the quality of their relationship higher, particularly with paternal grandparents.…

Explores how relations between grandparents and grandchildren are contingent upon a matrix of intergenerational relationships. Findings indicated multiple dimensions of grandparents' involvement with grandchildren to be associated with grandparents relationship with their own grandparents; grandparent's perception of closeness with grandchild; and…

Data from two-parent families in midwestern rural county revealed that adverse economic change increased economic pressures and hardship adaptations in ways that matched effect of income level and exceeded influence of unstable work. Pressures and adaptations mediated negative effects of economic adversity on emotional health and family…

The concept of ambivalence represents an interactional process in which individuals evaluate social relations as simultaneously positive and negative. This study investigates ambivalence in interpersonal relations through an empirical analysis of relationships between aging mothers and their adult children from their joint perspectives. Multilevel…

Based on the rural life experiences of Iowa children who grew up during the great farm crisis of the 1980s, this book focuses on successful adolescent development and its links to the social resources of families with ties to the land. In 1989, the Iowa Youth and Families Project began a panel study of 451 two-parent families in north central…

The economic decline of rural America has widespread consequences for families, children, and education. Broad changes in farming and in the rural nonfarm sector have pushed the poverty rate for rural areas in the 1980s higher than the central cities rate. Projections indicate that by the mid-1990s, one-half of all farm families in the midwest may…

In Iowa in the 1980s, dreams of prosperity were suddenly replaced by economic nightmares as plummeting land values generated economic decline and dislocation in rural communities and individual lives. This book examines the experience of over 400 Iowa families who lived through the Great Farm Crisis and now face an uncertain future. Interviewed as…

Studied families in the Iowa Youth and Family Project for the social and developmental pathways by which adolescents approach decisions to relocate. Found that lack of socioeconomic opportunity, relatively weak and declining ties to family and religious community, and strong educational prospects were potent factors. Also found that plans to…

Examines the effects of economic stress on children and their families through changes in family relationships and economic adaptations. Uses data from two longitudinal studies of child development begun during the Great Depression. Discusses findings in relation to an interactional model of the process by which families adapt to stressful times.…