THE AIM OF THIS STUDY WAS TO INVESTIGATE THE EFFECT OF SELECTED FACTORS ON THE OCCUPATIONAL STATUS OF A REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE OF 60 PESTICIDE DEALERS IN NEBRASKA. CORRELATION AND INTERCORRELATION COEFFICIENTS WERE COMPUTED AND CONTINGENCY TABLES WERE CONSTRUCTED. IT WAS FOUND THAT FORMAL EDUCATIONAL LEVEL CORRELATES WITH OCCUPATIONAL STATUS AND THAT COMMUNICATION EFFECTIVENESS IS POSITIVELY RELATED TO OCCUPATIONAL STATUS. A SIGNIFICANT NEGATIVE CORRELATION WAS OBTAINED BETWEEN OCCUPATIONAL STATUS AND ATTENDANCE AT OCCUPATIONALLY RELATED INFORMAL EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS. ALTHOUGH OTHER FACTORS--FATHER'S OCCUPATIONAL STATUS, COMMUNITY SIZE, AGE, INFORMAL EDUCATION, OPINION LEADERSHIP, AND BUSINESS SUCCESS--BORE SOME RELATIONSHIP TO OCCUPATIONAL STATUS, FORMAL EDUCATIONAL LEVEL AND COMMUNICATION EFFECTIVENESS EMERGED AS THE MOST SIGNIFICANT VARIABLES OF THE STUDY. THE CONCLUSIONS ON FORMAL EDUCATION ARE SUPPORTED BY PREVIOUS RESEARCH, WHILE THOSE ON COMMUNICATION EFFECTIVENESS APPEAR TO OPEN A NEW AREA FOR FURTHER VALIDATION. (APPENDIXES INCLUDE THE INTERVIEW SCHEDULE, AND "OCCUPATIONAL RATING GUIDE." THERE ARE TEN TABLES AND 12 REFERENCES.) (LY)