Abstract
This article examines the context of growing up in rural America and how rural roots shape life chances. The distinctive physical, social, and cultural attributes of rural areas can exacerbate many of the challenges of childhood poverty. Yet rural children have better access to public childcare services and perform as well as urban children on standardized tests. Life trajectories diverge most sharply when rural youths decide whether to leave their home communities. Those who stay typically face limited opportunities for higher education and well-paid, stable employment, whereas those who leave fare remarkably well with respect to their educational, economic, and health outcomes. In sum, growing up in rural America offers distinctive advantages and disadvantages, yet the benefits may accrue primarily to those who leave.
- © 2022 Russell Sage Foundation. Clark, Shelley, Sam Harper, and Bruce Weber. 2022. “Growing Up in Rural America.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 8(3): 1–47. DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2022.8.4.01. The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) (435–2019–1117). Direct correspondence to: Shelley Clark, at shelley.clark{at}mcgill.ca, 3460 McTavish, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 0E6, Canada; Sam Harper, at sam.harper{at}mcgill.ca, 2001 Avenue McGill College, Room 1262, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 1G1, Canada; Bruce Weber, at bruce.weber{at}oregonstate.edu, Department of Applied Economics, 213 Ballard Extension Hall, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331–3601, United States.
Open Access Policy: RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences is an open access journal. This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.