Economic Restructuring and Family Well-Being in Rural America

Kristin E. Smith is a family demographer at the Carsey Institute and Research Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of New Hampshire.Ann R. Tickamyer is Professor and Head, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, The Pennsylvania State University.

• ContentsList of FiguresList of MapsList of TablesForewordCynthia “Mil” DuncanAcknowledgmentsIntroductionKristin E. Smith and Ann TickamyerSection 1: Changing Economic Opportunities and Changing Roles1Rural Economic Restructuring: Implications for Children, Youth, and FamiliesDaniel T. Lichter and Deborah Roempke Graefe2Employment Hardship Among Rural MenLeif Jensen and Eric B. Jensen3Changing Roles: Women and Work in Rural AmericaKristin E. Smith4Men Without Sawmills: Job Loss and Gender Identity in Rural AmericaJennifer ShermanSection 2: Family Change, Economic Hardship, and Family Adaptive Strategies5Economic Restructuring and Family Structure Change, 1980 to 2000: A Focus on Female-Headed Families with ChildrenDiane K. McLaughlin and Alisha J. Coleman-Jensen6Patterns of Family Formation and Dissolution in Rural America and Implications for Well-BeingAnastasia Snyder7Job Characteristics and Economic Survival Strategies: The Effect of Economic Restructuring and Marital Status in a Rural CountyMargaret K. Nelson8Economic Hardship, Parenting, and Family Stability in a Cohort of Rural AdolescentsKatherine Jewsbury CongerSection 3: Low-Wage Employment9Parents’ Work Time in Rural America: The Growth of Irregular SchedulesElaine McCrate10Low-Wage Employment Among Minority Women in Nonmetropolitan Areas: A Decomposition AnalysisMarlene Lee11Regional Variation of Women in Low-Wage Work Across Rural CommunitiesCynthia D. Anderson and Chih-Yuan WengSection 4: Work and Family Policy12Strengthening Rural Communities Through Investment in Youth Education, Employment, and TrainingLiliokanaio Peaslee and Andrew Hahn13Child Care in Rural AmericaNicole D. Forry and Susan K. Walker14Health Insurance in Rural AmericaDeborah Roempke Graefe15Livelihood Practices in the Shadow of Welfare ReformAnn Tickamyer and Debra Henderson16Poverty, Work, and the Local Environment: TANF and EITCDomenico Parisi, Steven Michael Grice, Guangqing Chi, and Jed PressgroveConclusionsAnn Tickamyer and Kristin E. SmithReferencesList of ContributorsIndex

“This is a timely and important book on a very underresearched and misunderstood topic. As numerous others point out, ‘rural’ America is not just farms and rural areas, and its problems are not all that different in some fundamental ways from urban ones. This book should be required reading for anyone interested in better understanding how global economic changes have affected not only jobs but, crucially, the people who hold them, the places they live, the people they live with. The book will be of interest to academics and nonacademics alike. Policy makers would be particularly well advised to learn from its rich empirical analysis and thoughtful discussion.”—William W. Falk, University of Maryland