Alienation Among Rural Adults of Low Educational Attainment

Abstract

To identify those socio-economic characteristics of rural adults differentiating among those of varying levels of alienation, struc tured interviews were conducted with a sample of household heads resident in a specified area of British Columbia. Educational attainment was found to be inversely related to alienation in the total sample. Data from 293 respondents with eight or less years of school completed were analyzed with respect to alienation category, and five variables which were statistically significant at the .05 level. In the educationally disadvantaged group, the less as compared to the more alienated household heads were charac terized by a birthplace closer to the present place of residence, more participation in community organizations, a farm rather than non-farm occupation, less unemployment in the preceding three years, and greater satisfaction with the present job.