Predictors of Community Satisfaction Among Rural Residents

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Patrick LaShell.
Dr. Michael Seipel, Faculty Mentor.
Rural Sociology Conference, 1999. Chicago, IL.

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According to the systemic model of community attachment, the level of attachment that a person feels to their community is primarily associated with the length of time lived in the community, age, and social position. In this study, we examined how the location of a large-scale hog confinement operation in a rural area affected residents’ community attachment. Such operations have generated debate in rural communities, due to widespread disagreement among residents over their social, environmental, and economic impacts. Residents of four northern Missouri counties—two with large scale corporate swine facilities and two with varying levels of independent hog production—were surveyed (n=800). We hypothesized that some residents of the counties with large-scale hog confinements would report lower levels of community attachment due either to the community conflict resulting from siting the operation, or due to experiencing negative environmental externalities from them. While respondents generally reported high levels of community attachment, there were significant differences between the counties and between groups of residents within each county. Residents in the county which has had the most extensive development by the corporate hog producer, and is the site of their office complex as well as production facilities, had the lowest levels of community attachment, but reported the highest levels of positive change in their community since 1990. Additionally, the self-reported experience of annoying livestock odors at one’s residence had a small but statistically significant negative effect on attachment in the counties with large-scale corporate hog operations, but not in the counties with independent operations.