Department of Health Behavior and Policy, School of Population Health, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA.
VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA.
J Rural Health. 2024 Mar;40(2):348-367. doi: 10.1111/jrh.12795. Epub 2023 Sep 11.
People living in rural areas often experience limited access to health resources, slow knowledge diffusion, and geographical isolation, and tend to be at higher risk for poor physical and mental health outcomes compared with nonrural populations. It is unclear, yet, how the concept of "rural" shapes observed differences from nonrural populations. We aim to develop a psychometrically sound scale to assess key dimensions that constitute individual-level perceived rurality.
We first conducted a broad literature review to identify a priori concepts related to rurality and adapted survey items measuring relevant constructs, such as loneliness, attitudes toward people living in rural areas, and perceived social membership. We used these conceptual constructs and measures to develop a survey questionnaire focused on rural perceptions. We recruit residents in 3 rural states: Kentucky, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Using the explorative factor analysis and second-order measurement model in the structural equation model framework, we developed a rural perception scale consisting of 18 items.
We recruited 1,384 participants (n = 686 from KY; n = 698 from NH/VT) using Amazon Mechanical Turk (n = 897, 64.8%) and social media paid ads (n = 487, 35.2%). The average age of participants was 41 years old (SD = 15); 54.7% of respondents had less than college graduate education, and 94.2% reported their race as non-Hispanic White. Majority of the participants were from Rural Urban Commuting Area (RUCA)-designated urban areas (n = 798, 57.7%), followed by RUCA-designated large rural areas (257, 18.6%), RUCA-designated rural areas (n = 174, 12.6%) and RUCA-designated isolated areas (n = 133, 9.6%). Our final model revealed 4 latent constructs: "belonging" (Cronbach's α = 0.896), "attitudes toward rural life" (Cronbach's α = 0.807), "loneliness" (Cronbach's α = 0.898), and "community social ties to people in their community" (Cronbach's α = 0.846).
We identified 4 subfactors of the umbrella concept of rurality that explain how people in rural regions may perceive being in rural environments and having rural lifestyles.
与非农村人口相比，农村地区的人们往往难以获得卫生资源，知识传播缓慢，地理位置孤立，他们的身心健康状况较差。然而，目前还不清楚“农村”这一概念是如何塑造人们对农村地区和非农村地区的不同看法的。我们旨在开发一种具有良好心理测量学特性的量表，以评估构成个体感知农村性的关键维度。
我们首先进行了广泛的文献综述，以确定与农村性相关的先验概念，并改编了测量与孤独感、对农村地区居民的态度以及感知社会成员身份等相关结构的调查项目。我们使用这些概念结构和测量方法，制定了一项以农村认知为重点的调查问卷。我们在肯塔基州、新罕布什尔州和佛蒙特州这 3 个农村州招募居民。使用探索性因素分析和结构方程模型框架中的二阶测量模型，我们开发了一个由 18 个项目组成的农村感知量表。
我们使用亚马逊机械土耳其人（n = 897，64.8%）和社交媒体付费广告（n = 487，35.2%）招募了 1384 名参与者（肯塔基州 n = 686；新罕布什尔州/佛蒙特州 n = 698）。参与者的平均年龄为 41 岁（SD = 15）；54.7%的受访者受教育程度低于大学本科，94.2%的人报告自己的种族是非西班牙裔白人。大多数参与者来自农村城市通勤区（RUCA）指定的城市地区（n = 798，57.7%），其次是 RUCA 指定的大型农村地区（n = 257，18.6%）、RUCA 指定的农村地区（n = 174，12.6%）和 RUCA 指定的孤立地区（n = 133，9.6%）。我们的最终模型显示了 4 个潜在结构：“归属感”（Cronbach's α = 0.896）、“对农村生活的态度”（Cronbach's α = 0.807）、“孤独感”（Cronbach's α = 0.898）和“社区与社区居民的社会联系”（Cronbach's α = 0.846）。
我们确定了农村性这一总括概念的 4 个亚因素，这些因素解释了农村地区的人如何感知农村环境和农村生活方式。
