Factors Influencing on Rural People’s Way of Life

Abstract

The objectives of this research were to study (1) socio-economic profile of rural people ; (2) occupations ; (3) custom ; (4) beliefs ; (5) social institutions ; (6) relationships between occupations, custom, beliefs, and social institutions ; (7) some selected factors influencing occupations, custom, beliefs, and social institutions ; and (8) their constraints and suggestions. The subjects were 400 rural people in the central region selected by multistage sampling and the data were collected by using interview guides. Percentage, mean, median, standard deviation, chi-square test and multiple regression were employed in the data analysis. The findings of the study were as follows : (1) no significant relationships were found between custom, beliefs, social institutions and occupations ; (2) significant relationships were found between custom, beliefs, and social institutions ; (3) internal motivation, significance of benefit, impact from local leaders and mass communication were found to have influence on occupations, custom, beliefs, and social institutions ; (4) age and sex of the sample were the best predictive variables on occupations ; (5) age and membership of local organizations were the best predictive variables on custom ; (6) annual income and membership of the local organizations were the best predictive variables on beliefs ; (7) age was the best predictive variable on social institutions ; and (8) the major constraints were occupational problems (e.g. low price of agricultural products, lack of water resources, lack of pest controls, high expenses of fertilizers and insect control and etc,), custom, beliefs, and social institutions problems.