ABSTRACT
Rural policymakers need information that accurately describes and explains how structural changes in agriculture are affecting rural institutions. Data can be obtained retrospectively or prospectively through interviews, self-administered questionnaires, or archival sources. As an example in rural sociology, T. B. Heaton, D. T. Lichter, and A. Amoateng used a variant of event history analysis to examine rural/urban differences in the timing of first intercourse, first marriage, and birth of the first child among young women. Cost and procedural concerns about collecting multiple waves of data from multiple respondents are valid and should be addressed within the larger framework of the role of research in policy decisions. For most research, multiple indicators of constructs are obtained from a single respondent. To better monitor social change and its effects on families, research designs that go beyond survey practices need to be developed. An important dimension of research design is to relate study goals to analysis strategies.
