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While the impact of transport infrastructure on regional disparity has been widely examined, its effect on intra-regional inequality has received less attention. Based on panel data at China's prefecture-city level during 2007–2018, we adopt the Difference-in-Differences model to investigate whether high-speed rail affects one type of intra-regional inequality, the urban-rural income gap. The results show that high-speed rail operation has widened the urban-rural income gap by boosting the agglomeration of population, financial capital, and economic activities in urban areas adjacent to high-speed rail stations. Furthermore, the effect varies across cities. The impact of high-speed rail on the urban-rural income gap is more evident in small and less developed cities due to the polarization effect. In contrast, this is not observed in large and developed cities. One possible reason is that, in the latter, the diffusion effect is much stronger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide a mixed-methods, comparative analysis of the development of the urban-rural electoral cleavage in Canada, Great Britain, and the United States from the early 20th century to the present. Using aggregate election results, electoral district boundary files, and electoral district population measures, we construct a new comparable dataset of district election results and urbanity for the lower house of the legislature in each country. We use this dataset to measure the importance of the urban-rural divide for election outcomes across countries and time. We find that the cleavage has widened over time in each country, each arrived at its current urban-rural divide via a distinct developmental trajectory, which we interpret with reference to secondary literature. We conclude by discussing the significance of our findings for theories of both the causes and consequences of urban-rural divides and discuss the implications of our work for the comparative study of urban-rural cleavages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is there a rural–urban divide in citizens' views on European Union agricultural policy? We argue that the place of residence influences a person's attitude toward agricultural policy issues. More precisely, we postulate that rural populations are less likely to view environmental and climate action, and sustainable food production as key objectives of agricultural policy; instead, we hypothesize they are more likely to indicate job growth in rural areas and ensuring a fair standard of living for farmers as key objectives. We analyze data from a Special Eurobarometer survey fielded in 2020 for 24,328 individuals living in 27 European Union member states. Multilevel mixed-effect logit models reveal the place of residence (urban–peri-urban–rural) as a significant predictor of the respondents' attitudes for almost all dimensions of agricultural policy. The differences are most striking for environmental and climate-related aspects of agricultural policy, as well as for its goal of generating economic growth and jobs in rural areas. From this, we conclude there is a rural–urban divide concerning agricultural policy, which policymakers should be aware of and attempt to address. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Worldwide school closures and remote learning have been implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. These measures' impact on young populations' academic achievements is unclear. This study (N = 1,736, ages 14–20 years, 53% female, and Chinese) analyzed academic examination scores for students at a high school in Eastern China between January and July 2020. Results showed that overall, students' academic achievements appeared to be negatively affected amid a school closure. More importantly, students' self-control was introduced as a moderating factor that partially accounted for this difference in the context of remote learning at home. These findings extended our understanding of school closures' unequal impact on young populations. Education and social policies should respond to these challenges during times of crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on a unique battery of questions fielded on the 2018 CCES and in two separate surveys—one in 2019 and the other during the 2020 election—we study the extent to which Americans feel animus toward communities that are geographically distinct from their own and whether these feelings explain Americans' attitudes toward the two major political parties and self-reported vote choice. We report results on how place-based resentment predicted vote choice in the 2018 midterm and 2020 general elections and how those feelings relate to other widely studied facets of political behavior such as partisanship and racial resentment. Rural resentment is a powerful predictor of vote choice in both election years examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing studies on the contemporary U.S. urban-rural divide have neglected its potential role in non-voting political participation. Theoretically, there are mixed expectations: for example, higher social capital in rural areas, alongside a generally older population, suggest rural areas should have greater political participation. Conversely, lower socioeconomic indicators and more physical distance barriers suggest the opposite. Using nationally stratified survey data from the 2018 CCES (N = 61,000) and 2020 CES (N = 60,000), we find that specific participation behaviors do not consistently vary across the urban-rural spectrum, controlling for demographic variables. The few consistently significant differences relate to the nature of location-based access. For instance, using 2020 and 2021 ACLED data, we find that an activity where non-rural residents participate more—protesting—occurs less often in rural areas, thus stymieing participation opportunities for rural and small-town residents. Alternatively, rural and small-town residents are consistently more likely to put up a sign, which may reflect a greater incidence of living in houses with yards compared to urban residents. Social media political participation behaviors do not yield urban-rural differences, further suggesting that once geographic access-related barriers are removed, participation rates are essentially similar across the urban-rural spectrum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The epidemiology of stroke is evolving in China as the population undergoes demographic, lifestyle, and economic transitions. An updated review is pertinent to providing feedback on current, and in planning future, prevention and management strategies. Aims: To identify high-quality epidemiological studies for quantifying the prevalence, incidence, mortality, and case fatality for stroke in China. Methods: A search was undertaken across a range of bibliographic databases on 30 November 2021 without time limitation. Assessments were made of the risk of bias of the included studies. The outcomes were synthesized using a random-effects model. Subgroup analysis and meta-regression models were used to define the source of heterogeneity. Results: Of 9407 identified records, 26 population-based studies were included. Due to significant heterogeneity across the studies, the original range for crude rates of indices was wide. The pooled annual prevalence was 1329.5/100,000 (95% confidence interval (CI) 713.6–2131.9, p < 0.001), incidence 442.1/100,000 (327.6–573.8, p < 0.001), mortality 154.1/100,000 (52.6–308.8, I2 = 100%, p < 0.001), and case fatality 35.8% (26.1% to 46.1%, I2 = 97%, p < 0.001). The prevalence and incidence of stroke have increased, but stroke-related case fatality has declined in China over recent decades. There are significant regional and rural-urban differences in incidence rates. Conclusion: Despite improved public health policies and healthcare delivery, the burden of stroke remains high in China. Further coordinated efforts are required in prevention and community care to offset the likelihood of further expansion in the absolute number of stroke cases in this large population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China implements different social endowment insurance policies between urban and rural areas which may cause differences in investment decisions of urban and rural households. Based on the 2013 to 2017 China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) data and the two-way fixed effect panel model, this study aims to investigate the effect of social endowment insurance on the inequality of household portfolio between China's urban and rural areas and the moderating effect of financial literacy on the relationship between social endowment insurance and household portfolio. The empirical results show that (1) the participation of social endowment insurance is positively related to the possibility of holding risky financial assets and the ratio of risky financial assets; (2) the effect of social endowment insurance is strong and significant in urban areas but weak and not significant in rural areas; (3) the moderating effect of financial literacy on the relationship between social endowment insurance and household portfolio widens the gap of the household portfolio between the urban and rural areas. This paper indicates that the social endowment insurance would affect the household portfolio decisions positively and the financial literacy positively moderates the relationship between social endowment insurance and household portfolio, which just can be applied to urban households. This paper provides evidence of the inequality between the urban and rural households in China and discusses the possible causes of the urban-rural income gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's development strategies have long been premised on an institutionalized urban-rural divide, on the basis of which the population is governed. This urban-rural divide is being reconfigured as China's relationship to the global economy transforms. As China's leaders seek to upgrade the economy from one focused on export production to one based on urban middle-class consumers, China's population is being reorganized. China's largest cities are pivotal to this strategy. Branded "world cities," as they further integrate into the global economy, they are becoming exclusive zones, their populations carefully managed and selected. In Beijing, urban villages are key sites for enacting such strategies. Under a controversial program known as "sealed management," inhabitants are subjected to various forms of surveillance and monitoring. This constitutes a dual strategy both to control local villager populations during land expropriations and to "upgrade" the migrant labor force in keeping with the government's global city plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study found that personal wisdom was correlated positively with Chinese older adults' quality of life regardless of their place of residence (rural vs urban). Both self-esteem and depression were found to account directly for the relation between personal wisdom and quality of life among the urban, but not the rural residents. The findings overall highlighted the importance of considering personal wisdom as a beneficial psychological resource that helps older adults maintain a high quality of life in old age. Further, the rural-urban difference indicates the need for future personal wisdom studies on low-income and less educated older populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term "life-related," a significant characteristic of new political textbook(s) in China's new curriculum reform at senior high school level, means that the textbook(s) should be based on the learners' life experiences and designed to enhance learning in daily life. There has been little relevant research about student perspectives on how "life-related" a textbook is, especially on comparing students from urban and rural areas. This paper has two aims: Firstly, to compare the perspectives of the urban and rural students about how "life-related" a textbook is; and secondly, to concentrate on identifying the effecting factors on the student perspectives. In this study, the results of questionnaire survey (N = 569), with 285 students from a urban school and 284 students from a rural school, indicated that the political textbook (Politics and Life, in short P&L) is more related to urban students' daily life. Findings from semi-structured interviews and content analysis of the textbook suggested that public resource, family background, and the urban-oriented textbook content may explain the urban-rural difference of students' perceptions on political textbook. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study has been conducted to explore demographics-based differences in assessing attitudes toward honor killing. The scale used to measure attitudes is a newly developed indigenous measure. The scale consists of two subscales as follows: (a) affirmation of honor killing and (b) deterrence of honor killing. The sample comprised 695 individuals (248 males and 447 females) with ages ranging from 18 to 55 years (M = 25.89, SD = 8.10). The sample was collected from the federal capital city of Pakistan and various cities of Punjab (Pakistan). The results of the study found nonsignificant gender differences in the attitudes toward honor killings. Furthermore, people living in rural setups showed more affirmation than people living in urban setups. Likewise, older adults showed more affirmation to honor killing than adults of younger age groups. Finally, participants belonging to a joint/extended family system were more affirmative and had acceptance toward honor killing than those who belonged to nuclear families. Hence, the findings of the current study suggest that demographic variables play a role in determining and shaping the attitudes and beliefs of individuals regarding the phenomenon of honor killing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing ranks of nurse practitioners (NPs) in rural areas of the United States have the potential to help alleviate existing primary care shortages. This study uses a nationwide source of claims- and EHR-data from 2017 to construct measures of NP clinical autonomy and complexity of care. Comparisons between rural and urban primary care practices reveal greater clinical autonomy for rural NPs, who were more likely to have an independent patient panel, to practice with less physician supervision, and to prescribe Schedule II controlled substances. In contrast, rural and urban NPs provided care of similar complexity. These findings provide the first claims- and EHR-based evidence for the commonly held perception that NPs practice more autonomously in rural areas than in urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Suicide rates are higher in rural compared to urban areas. Although this pattern appears to be driven by higher rates among men, there is limited evidence about the characteristics of rural people who die by suicide in Canada. The objective of this study was to examine the demographics, manner of death, and social and clinical antecedents of people who died by suicide in rural areas compared to urban areas. Methods: We conducted an observational study of all suicide deaths that occurred among Newfoundland and Labrador residents between 1997 and 2016 using a linked data set derived from a comprehensive review of provincial medical examiner records. We used t tests and χ2 to assess associations between rural/urban status and variables related to demographics, circumstances, and manner of death, as well as social and medical history. Logistic regression was utilized to assess the independent contribution of any variable found to be significant in univariate analysis. Results: Rural people who died by suicide accounted for 54.8% of all deaths over a 20-year period. Overall, 81.6% of people who died were male. Compared to urban, rural people who died by suicide were younger, more likely to use firearms or hanging, and had a higher mean blood alcohol content at the time of death (27.69 vs. 22.95 mmol/L). Rural people were also less likely to have had a known history of a prior suicide attempt, psychiatric disorder, alcohol or substance abuse, or chronic pain. Discussion: The demographic and clinical differences between rural and urban people who died by suicide underscore the need for suicide prevention approaches that account for place-based differences. A key challenge for suicide prevention in rural communities is to ensure that interventions are developed and implemented in a manner that fits local contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition (BOD) is a popular method for studying the contributions of explanatory factors to social inequality. The results have often been given causal interpretations. While recent work and this article both show that some types of BOD are equivalent to a counterfactual-based treatment effect/selection bias decomposition, this equivalence does not hold in general. Given this lack of general equivalence, in this article based on the counterfactual framework, we propose a method of treatment effect deviation (TED) to study social inequality. Essentially, the TED assesses to what extent the omission of particular covariates (i.e., selection bias in the omitted variables) can alter the estimated treatment effect. The TED has a better causal interpretation and can be estimated nonparametrically (and hence is more robust to model misspecification errors). Therefore, the TED may serve as an alternative to or may be used in tandem with the BOD. We illustrate the new method through two case studies. In the first case study, we show that the TED provides a more credible estimate of the treatment effect on the treated than does the BOD. However, both the TED and the BOD highlight the importance of accounting for prior earning in estimating the training effect. In the second case study, the results of the two methods differ notably, but both agree that normative factors play a significant role in generating the rural–urban disparity in social policy preference in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Increasing rural community college degree attainment is very important to foster rural areas' economic and social well-being. Rural community colleges differ greatly from their suburban and urban counterparts in financial aid patterns and student bodies. However, existing literature is vacant with respect to student financial aid and degree attainment in rural community colleges. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between financial aid and associate degree attainment for rural community college students and compare the financing patterns of the three locales. Method: Using data from Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:04/09), we performed a series of logistic regression models that include financial aid variables and control variables from psychological, sociological, organizational, and internationalist perspectives. Results: We found rural community college students exceeded other locales in degree attainment. Logistic regression results reveal insignificant roles of Pell Grants and Federal Subsidized Loans, and negative role of Federal Unsubsidized Loans in associate degree attainment for rural community college students. Contributions: The results suggest that public subsidies, such as Pell Grants, were not sufficient to cover rural students' unmet need for financing degree attainment, and that rural students are more cost-conscious in borrowing and spending than their suburban and urban counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Criminological research has demonstrated the significant relationship between deviant peer associations, a lack of self-control, and individual delinquency. These relationships also account for involvement in cybercrime, though these results are based largely on adult samples. There is less research considering juvenile offending online, particularly examining involvement in property-based offenses such as computer hacking. This study utilized an international sample of 48,327 juvenile respondents in the Second International Self-Report of Delinquency (ISRD-2) study to examine the role of gender as a moderating factor in the relationship between deviant peer associations, self-control, opportunity, and self-reported computer hacking behavior. The findings demonstrated different correlates associated with hacking for males and females, as well as differences on the basis of urban and rural residency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature of leadership and management in a school are key to achieving high-quality education for all pupils. Leadership theories and empirical research have sought to identify characteristics of leaders, aspects of the context in which they work and their relationships with others to identify features of successful school leadership. This article reports on findings from a study into outstanding leadership in primary education using Q-methodology. The perceptions of head teachers, deputy head teachers, governors and academics with personal experience of leadership in English primary schools were gathered using Q-sort and analysed with PQ software. Overall, the analysis identified very strong agreement over six statements from a Q-set of 23 statements of outstanding leadership. There were subtle differences between urban and rural school settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the relationship between cell phone use and self-reported happiness among older adults in Mainland China and whether rural/urban residence status moderates this relationship. The analysis is based on a sample of 6,952 respondents over the age of 60, from the 2010 wave of China Family Panel Studies. Findings show that using own cell phone is positively associated with self-reported happiness among Chinese older adults (odds ratio [OR] = 1.283, p < .001). This relationship remains for respondents residing in rural areas (OR = 1.616, p < .01) but not for their urban counterparts. Findings reflect on how the happiness of Chinese older adults has been affected by a growing shift in the traditional family values due to the unprecedented economic growth. Results also highlight the disparities between state support for older adults in rural and urban areas as well as the necessity to develop relevant policies to improve the subjective well-being of China’s rapidly growing population of older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China finally underwent its modernizing (i.e., with increased labor productivity and incomes) agricultural revolution in 1980 to 2010, through dynamics unlike those of most other previous agricultural revolutions. It is “hidden” because the revolution has not come so much from the conventional and readily apparent increases of certain crops’ output by weight due to new inputs, but rather mainly by the switch from grain production to more and more higher-value agricultural products like meat-poultry-fish, milk-eggs, and fruits and higher grade vegetables. That change has been driven by a revolution in the food consumption patterns of the Chinese people that came with rising incomes mainly from nonagricultural development. A comparison of China’s agricultural history with others tells about the interactions of multiple factors, not just the role of markets and/or technology, or property systems, but rather their interactions with population-to-land resource endowments, differential rural-urban relations, state actions, and historical coincidences. China’s is in fact most like India’s, rather than “East Asia’s,” though even then with important differences stemming from its revolutionary legacies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demographic ageing is expected to affect labour markets in very different ways on a regional scale. Contributing to this debate, we explore the spatiotemporal patterns of recent distributional changes in the worker age structure and innovation output for German regions by conducting an exploratory space-time data analysis. Besides commonly used tools, we apply newly developed approaches which allow the investigation of joint dynamics of the spatial distributions. Overall, we find that innovation hubs tend to be located in areas with high skill concentrations, but also seem to coincide with favourable demographic age structures. We show that these concentrations are persistent over time due to clusterwise path dependence and spatial contagion forces. The spatiotemporal patterns speak in favour of a demographic polarization process of German regions where the post-reunification East-West divide is increasingly turning into a rural-urban divide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to examine youth physical activity (PA) in free-time periods during high school days and their contribution to total PA. Differences in terms of sex, age, body mass index and school level were assessed in a sample of Portuguese adolescents. Participants totalled 213 (135 girls), aged 14.6±1.7, from two different Portuguese schools, 69 attending an urban school and 144 attending a rural school. Activity levels of five free-time periods were assessed with an accelerometry-based activity monitor (ActiGraph). The results indicated that boys had significantly higher levels of PA (counts min−1) than girls for two of the five periods (afternoon recess and after-school time). Activity levels were higher among younger students during three periods (before school, morning recess and afternoon recess). Significant differences in activity levels (p < 0.001) between the two schools were also found. Despite being older the rural students were more active than urban. In conclusion, free-time periods in high school are a relevant context for PA promotion. In this study they contributed significantly for total daily PA in both sexes, with 37.7–42.7% for girls and 40.1–42.1% for boys. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study utilizes the Taiwan colonial household registration data to study the cause of uxorilocal marriage in Taiwan during the period of Japanese colonial rule and, simultaneously, to compare the prevalence of uxorilocal marriage in urban (Taipei) and rural (XinChu) communities. The socioeconomic status of the bride and groom’s family, and ethnic and urban–rural differences are the main issues in this research. In addition, the viewpoints of Wolf and Huang and Pasternak will be rechecked vis-à-vis regional differences. The results of this study will be presented by statistic analysis and geographic information system. In Taiwan, compared to major and minor marriage, uxorilocal marriage had a higher ratio in Taipei and XinChu. In uxorilocal marriage, the age of brides and grooms is older in Taipei than in XinChu. In addition, our research indicates either daughters or adopted daughters, if they had fewer siblings or no brothers, had a higher probability of entering into uxorilocal marriages. Moreover, uxorilocal marriages were found to be less prevalent in later birth cohorts while ethnic groups and parent’s marriage types had no direct effect on uxorilocal marriage. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A unique form of rural tourism has been booming over the past two decades in China. This Chinese version of rural tourism, popularly called nongjiale, involves peasant families hosting urbanite guests in their farm guesthouses, providing them with rustic food and lodging that symbolize something quintessentially rural, familial, authentic, eco-friendly, healthy, and traditional. The space of nongjiale farm guesthouses provides a significant locus of rural-urban encounters, social-boundary making, and identity politics between peasant hosts and urbanite guests. Focusing on the space of nongjiale farm guesthouses, this article explores how urbanite guests and peasant hosts imagine and experience China’s countryside and how this articulates with diverse social processes, discursive systems, and material and symbolic forces in the rapidly changing field of meanings and rural-urban power relations in post-Reform China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to test the validity of scores on the Homework Purpose Scale using 681 rural and 306 urban high school students. First, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on the rural sample. The results reveal that the Homework Purpose Scale comprises three separate yet related factors, including Learning-Oriented Reasons, Adult-Oriented Reasons, and Peer-Oriented Reasons. This factor structure is tested with the data from the urban sample. Given an adequate level of configural, factor loading, common error covariance, and intercept invariance, the difference between the group means is further tested. The results reveal that urban high school students, as compared with their rural counterparts, are more likely to do homework for adult-oriented reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literature has shown that people living in rural areas are less likely to have access to the Internet for demographic and technological reasons; however, less information is available regarding rural-urban differences in online health-information seeking. Data from the National Cancer Institute's nationally representative 2005 Health Information National Trends Survey (N = 5,586) are used to examine these relationships. Logistic regression results show that those in rural areas use the Internet less than those who live in urban areas. Among individuals who have used the Internet, those in rural areas are less likely to use the Internet for health purposes. The persistence of a digital divide between rural and urban residents in online health searching is attributable to factors such as educational level, income, and diffusion of broadband. The article discusses the impact of these differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The association between socioeconomic status (SES) and health, which has proven to be quite robust, is rarely tested in societies where levels of economic development and systems of stratification differ from those in Western developed countries. This article examines associations in rural and urban China. Method: Techniques include logit equation estimates of separate and pooled samples. The latter employ interaction terms to test rural and urban effects. Socioeconomic indicators include those more customarily used in these types of studies (e.g., education) and several that are less traditional (e.g., pension eligibility). Results: Results indicate associations exist in China. Bank savings is the strongest predictor. Some unexpected results are also found, including a positive association between socioeconomic status and chronic conditions (e.g., cardiovascular disease) among older adults in urban China. Discussion: Use and access to a health care professional might explain part of this anomaly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The suicide rate in Australia is cause for concern, especially the increase in attempted and completed suicides in rural and regional locations. The present study examined reasons for choosing not to commit suicide as a function of residential location. Method: The study involved 655 Victorian residents from four population-based strata; urban, regional city, regional town, and rural. Results: Results from the Reasons for Living Inventory revealed significant differences as a function of residential location. Overall, residents in rural locations reported having significantly more to live for than their urban counterparts. Further analysis of six reasons for living (child, family, moral, social, coping and death-related concerns) showed a pattern whereby residents in rural locations reported having the most to live for, followed by regional residents, and urban residents who reported having the least to live for. Conclusions: These findings are in contrast to increase of suicide rates in rural areas, and highlight the need for a greater understanding of the mechanisms underlying suicidal behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suicide rates in 2005 in South Korea were higher in rural areas than in urban areas. Those in rural areas more often used pesticides and chemicals as a method for suicide, and there was a greater proportion of men and the elderly, both groups at higher risk for suicide in South Korea. These three factors may account for the high rural suicide rate in South Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]