Social impact of rapid energy development on rural youth: A statewide comparison

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Abstract
Recent studies on the social consequences of rapid energy development in rural areas have tested the social disruption hypothesis with various subgroups of the community and have reported conflicting results. Few studies have focused on young people and fewer have used statewide data. Using statewide data from high school seniors in the rural counties of Utah, this study compared those in counties with rapid growth in energy‐related employment to those in other rural counties in terms of attitudes toward community, attitudes toward family and home, sense of belonging, and degree of involvement in school, church, and community activities. While this study did find some differences in the direction expected based on previous research, these differences are fairly small and are mediated in many instances by other variables, particularly religion and number of places lived.