Suchergebnisse

AbstractPoverty is a significant problem in rural America. Gaining access to economically marginalized rural populations in order to recruit individuals to participate in a research study, however, is often a challenge. This article compares three different nonprobability sampling techniques that have been used to recruit rural, low‐income mothers—purposive sampling, respondent‐driven sampling, and mixed purposive sampling. We review the relative advantages and drawbacks of the three methods in terms of access to the targeted population, methods of recruitment, size of the sample pool, randomness of the sample, generalizability of results, and researchers' control over the process.

AbstractLow‐income mothers in rural areas lack access to resources and may rely strongly on support from their children's grandparents. However, most current research on grandparent support focuses on coresidential or custodial grandparents. Very few recent studies focus on the types of support provided by nonresident grandparents, who may be a particularly critical source of support for mothers in rural areas. This qualitative study analyzed interview transcripts from 68 low‐income rural mothers to characterize the support they received from their children's grandparents. Two main themes emerged: multidimensionality and multivalence of support. In many families, resources were limited across generations. Results highlight the importance and complexity of multidimensional and multidirectional intergenerational relationships. Nonresident grandparent support appeared to play a key role in the financial and emotional functioning of these families, which may be overlooked in current research and practice with low‐resource rural families.