Whom shall we help? Farm families’ beliefs and attitudes about need and services

This study explored farm families’ attitudes and beliefs about success and failure in life endeavors, locus of responsibility for need, and beliefs on the predictability and causes of need. It further explored farm families’ attitudes about deservingness and priorities of groups in need and degrees of acceptability for seeking help with various problems. The study focused on 42 households with 44 farm families in five counties in northwestern Iowa and five counties in central Pennsylvania. The influence of the farm crisis of the 1980s on farm families’ attitudes and beliefs is discussed. Implications of the findings for the delivery of social services to farm families are included.