Rural Families

Any discussion of rural families requires first a definition of rural and some debate about the difference between rural versus urban lifestyles. Most discussions of rural populations in the United States define rural settings as encompassing those people living in places with fewer than 2,500 residents, or what has been called open countryside. In contrast, urban areas are defined as places that are composed of 2,500 or more residents in a region of at least 50,000 residents (U. S. Bureau of the Census 2002). A simple explanation of a rural-urban contrast does not fully define rurality or begin to demonstrate the various family lifestyles between the two.

According to O. William Farley (1982) and his colleagues, rural families have, over time, continued to function in a predominantly conservative style. These families participate in many religious and educational activities. The family often uses farmland for much of its income and resources. The nuclear family with traditional parental roles continues to exist. These families tend to spend more quality time together.

However, many families in rural areas often conceal their needs and disadvantages, which in turn does not allow their strengths to be fully known. Said differently, rural and urban areas, or the families that live in these respective areas, can no longer be characterized by definitions that use population density as the standard. Rather, the lifestyles and economic conditions of these families should be emphasized. No one universally accepted definition of rural areas exists; there is a great variance among rural communities, and poverty in rural areas tends to be long-standing and generational (Ginsberg 1998).

The great variation in what defines rural communities (and thus rural families) is important. Although the most often conceived and discussed impression of the rural family might be represented by the farming family, Leon Ginsberg's useful view could include people living in remote Zimbabwean villages, First Nations people living on rural reservations in the United States or Canada, native Alaskans in an iced-in polar village, the forest dwellers of Brazil, nomadic Bedouin tent dwellers in rural deserts of Northern Africa, citrus plantation families in Belize, or high Himalayan shepherd families in Nepal or Tibet. Is there any common ground for this wide divergence of family clusters and clans? If there is, it is that they are rural; they are not city dwellers, they occupy less dense living spaces, and they live closer to the land (whether they farm it or not) than their urban counterparts.

The Gemeinschaft concept (a community or society characterized by relationships) of sociologist Ferdinand Tonnies has traditionally been used to describe the small town, a community rooted in a sense of mutuality (efforts of two or more people to act together in ultimate harmony to achieve benefits for each), common destiny, and the resulting common bonds and obligations. Personal relationships are more informal and relaxed.

The advantages of rural life for families have sprung from this Gemeinschaft view: the interdependence and mutuality among extended family, clan, or tribal members; the harmony with nature; the link with friendship and neighboring networks; the strengths provided by rural places of worship; and the intrinsic satisfaction of working on the land and seeing an end product, the harvest of one's labors. A newer positive factor that now attracts young families to rural communities is the relative safety of rural schools and playgrounds as compared to urban institutions and parks.

Disadvantages for rural families have been viewed primarily as the lacks: lack of social and cultural opportunities, of high-paying jobs, of qualified teachers, of a larger worldview, of and adequate health care and social services.