ABSTRACT
For social scientists, attention to the characteristics that tend to differentiate farm families from other families would seem to be important in developing and probing family theory. The study of farm families will also, of course, yield better understanding of the service needs of farm families and nonfarm families with similar characteristics. In many farm families, one or more family members work part or full time off the farm. A woman's work off the farm can give her a feeling of autonomy because she is producing an income of her own that she can maintain control over. Decision making in the farm family involves a certain concreteness or rationality that masks the relationship complexities that are also involved when decisions are made. Some North American farm families experience wide seasonal variations in requirements for farm work.
