Are country people calmer, saner, more law-abiding and "better adjusted" than city folks? Back-to-nature enthusiasts, who like to think so, had reason last week to think again. A recent case study of a typical Ohio rural county found that country people, in spite of their slower-paced living, are just as frustrated, neurotic and generally queer as anybody elseĀperhaps more so.
The investigators, Ohio mental health officials and some Ohio State University professors, chose Miami County (pop. 52,600), north of Dayton, an area of farms, villages and three small towns (biggest: Piqua, pop. 16,000). They examined its schoolchildren, draft data, court records....