This report is one in a series on the socioeconomic conditions of rural people within selected areas of the United States. Data were obtained by personal interviews with 1,413 sample household heads residing in the rural parts of the Ozarks region of Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. The findings indicate that the morale of the poor was lower than that of the nonpoor. The rural poor apparently did not use organizational resources to attempt to alter their lives, especially in terms of formal group membership. The findings also indicate that the adult poor wanted their children to improve themselves. Fewer of the migrant children of the lower-income than of the upper-income household heads held high occupational status just prior to migration, just after migration, or at the time of the interview. Other findings point to the perpetuation of rural proverty from one generation to another. In terms of occupational status differences between generations, the impoverished household heads, when compared with their fathers, gained virtually no ground, while the non-impoverished household heads gained considerable ground. The migration of youth did not necessarily mean an improvement in occupational status; in fact, in contrast to the migrant children of upper-income household heads, the migrant children of lower-income household heads lost occupational status ground after migrating from the community in which they were reared. The findings indicate that the vast majority of sons of lower-income fathers actually attained an occupational status which was higher in prestige than the most prestigeous occupational position of their father. (Author/DB)