ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the following issues: family size and composition, satisfaction with family relationships, quality of life and family satisfactions, characteristics of rural families, parent-child relations, and marital satisfaction. A prominent family sociologist challenged the generalizability of a family sociology derived almost exclusively from the responses of wives. Since then, researchers have been more careful to obtain and compare the perceptions of different family members. Rural families are more likely to be headed by a married couple than are urban families. Family stability is greater in rural areas, in the sense that fewer divorces occur. Rural families are often stereotyped as being patriarchal, in the sense of the husband being dominant in all decisions that are made. Policymakers and human service professionals responsible for the delivery of rural family programs do not have the benefit of adequate research findings.
