ABSTRACT
This chapter explores household and individual behavioral changes that farm families made in response to economic hardship, and relates these adaptations to dimensions of familial well-being. It explores the relationship between economic hardship and selected measures of familial well-being. Respondents were asked how their family's quality of life had changed over the past five years. The most frequently cited adjustments among farm families were postponing major household purchases (56 percent), using savings to meet living expenses (49 percent), and cutting back on charitable contributions (45 percent). Farm operators and spouses with debt-asset ratios greater than 70 percent were much more likely to believe their quality of life had worsened over the past five years than those with debt-asset ratios of less than 10 percent. The most accurate predictors of household adjustments were respondents' age, neffamily income, and debt-asset ratio.
