Economic adjustment strategies of farm men and women experiencing economic stress

The purpose was to examine the adjustment strategies of 337 farm men and women who faced economic stress. Thirty-seven strategies were combined into one total-item scale with four subscales. The four subscales represented increasing and extending money income, decreasing money expenditures, increasing household labor income, and increasing household management income. Regression analyses for the five scales were performed for both genders with economic (money and time adequacy) and human (age, education, perceived income adequacy, and emotional stress) resources as independent variables. Predictors of adjustment strategies differed by gender. Income adequacy perception and perceived emotional stress were both significant for females, but only perceived emotional stress was significant for males. Perceiving their incomes as inadequate increased adjustment activities for all four adjustment strategy scales, for women.