Source: UNIV OF MINNESOTA submitted to
THE WELL-BEING OF RURAL LOW-INCOME FAMILIES IN THE CONTEXT OF WELFARE REFORM
 
PROJECT DIRECTOR: Bauer, J. W.
 
PERFORMING ORGANIZATION
FAMILY SOCIAL SCIENCE
UNIV OF MINNESOTA
ST PAUL,MN 55108
 
NON TECHNICAL SUMMARY: The Well-Being of Rural Low Income Families in the Context of Welfare Reform addresses the quality of life of low-income rural families by integrating the data collected at the family, county, and policy levels. Using the second wave of data collection for a multi-state (15 states) interdisciplianry project (NC 223), the study will: measure the quality of life by focusing on food security, health, and income sufficiency; study the impacts of state and national policies as to the risks and opportunities created for low income rural families; and place the context of the study in the counties' economic, social and policy environment.
 
OBJECTIVES: The objectives are to: (a) measure quality of life of low-income rural residents, focusing on variables of income sufficiency, food security, and health; (b) analyze the families' quality of life and indicators of economic and social development; and (c) analyze impacts of state and national welfare policies as to risks and opportunities for low-income rural residents. The state and federal welfare policies will be specifically analyzed in terms of the three quality of life measures and their relationships to development and maintenance of a stable rural workforce.
 
APPROACH: A website will be developed for sharing of the public information. A File Transfer Protocol (FTP) System will be used to manage the flow of data and electronic working of 28 researchers and 40 graduate students. Qualitative data for Wave 2 of the NC-223 project will be centrally coded by Oregon State University researchers combining the codes from Wave 1 with the codes from Wave 2. Quantitative data for Wave 2 will entered into the SPSS program from data sheets provided by each of the 15 states. Analysis oversight provided by Cornell University, Louisiana State University, and University of Minnesota of research teams working on the research questions related to food security, income sufficiency, health, and policy analysis connected to these concepts. The oversight for the anlaysis of the quality of life for the family with the indicators of economic and socail development will be the responsibility of the reasearch team at Minnesota.
 
CRIS NUMBER: 0189770 SUBFILE: CRIS
PROJECT NUMBER: MIN-52-G02 SPONSOR AGENCY: NIFA
PROJECT TYPE: NRI COMPETITIVE GRANT PROJECT STATUS: TERMINATED MULTI-STATE PROJECT NUMBER: (N/A)
START DATE: Dec 1, 2001 TERMINATION DATE: Nov 30, 2004

GRANT PROGRAM: RURAL DEVELOPMENT
GRANT PROGRAM AREA: Trade & Policy

CLASSIFICATION
Knowledge Area (KA)Subject (S)Science (F)Objective (G)Percent
802602030103.230%
802619930103.220%
703602010105.210%
802602010103.220%
802602030803.220%

CLASSIFICATION HEADINGS
KA802 - Human Development and Family Well-Being
KA703 - Nutrition Education and Behavior
S6199 - Economy, general/other
S6020 - The family and its members
F3010 - Economics
F3080 - Sociology
F1010 - Nutrition and metabolism
G5.2 - Promote Healthier Eating Habits and Lifestyles
G3.2 - Quality of Life in Rural Areas


RESEARCH EFFORT CATEGORIES
BASIC 5%
APPLIED 95%
DEVELOPMENTAL (N/A)%

KEYWORDS: quality of life; rural families; low income families; welfare; public policies; social change; human health; mental health; quantitative analysis; well being; nutrition education; human development; family members; human nutrition; sociology; measurement; income; economic analysis; economic impact; social impact; risk assessment; world wide web; information exchange; graduate students; data analysis; cooperative research; policy analysis; economic development; social development

PROGRESS: Jan 1, 2002 TO Dec 31, 2002
The objectives of the two-year grant from the National Research Initiative Competitive Grant Program (NRICGP) are to measure the quality of life of low-income rural residents for income sufficiency, food security, and health; analyze quality of life and indicators of economic and social development using county level data; and analyze impact of state and national welfare policies as to risks and opportunities for low-income rural residents and counties. In the first year of the grant the team of 28 researchers and 40 graduate students involved with the NC223, a 15 multi-state research project provided data collected as the Wave 2 for the longitudinal study. The NRICGP grant provided for Oregon State to centrally code data sets and combine them for Wave1 and Wave2 and prepare the data for analysis. This was done for the qualitative as well as the quantitative data. Wave 1 has 415 rural families with the mother over age 18 and at least child 12 or under who were eligible for Food Stamps or Women Infants and Child Nutritional Program or for those not receiving one of these programs the total family income was not more than 200% of the poverty level for the family. Wave 2 has 335 families and the retention rate was 80.1 percent for a mobile and resource-constrained sample. Those who did not participate or unable to find were sought for an average of 7 times. The group who could not be found was compared to those continuing in the study. At Wave 1 point in time these mothers were younger, less likely to work, held fewer jobs, had a lower level of education (high school or GED was the highest level), lower monthly incomes, and received greater amounts of Food Stamps. The successful strategies to keep the 335 families in the study were to have correspondence between the interviews with birthday cards to all family members, Mother's day cards, and newsletters to the family. Each time the address changed a stamped change of address card was given to the families to have them keep in touch with us. The research team members will have access to the Wave 2 data in January 2003. The NRICGP grant also facilitated a file transfer protocol site (FTP) for the management of the flow of data and the working of the researchers and students. University of Minnesota research team had oversight for the management of the FTP site. Much of the analysis to be conducted in the next year will flow through this system. A web site for sharing of public information was also developed at University of Minnesota. Its purpose is to share the research from the project, link to other research and informational sites that support better understanding of rural low-income families in the context of welfare reform. The site is just in the beginning stages and has been created to easily add to the site. The URL is www.ruralfamilies.umn.edu. The state summaries were written with the support from the NRICGP grant.

IMPACT: 2002-01-01 TO 2002-12-31 The impact of the support for this research has been internal for the researchers working on the project and the potential for the contacts to other people working in the area of policy influencing low-income rural families. Next year analysis will be done in the areas of income sufficiency, food security and health and connected to community context with the existing data from census and other sources.

PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 2002-01-01 TO 2002-12-31
No publications reported this period

PROJECT CONTACT INFORMATION
NAME: Bauer, J. W.
PHONE: 612-625-1763
FAX: 612-625-4227