Rural Sociology 65(1), 2000, pp. 50-71 Copyright © 2000 by the Rural Sociological Society After Farming : Emotional Health Trajectories of Farm, Nonfarm, and Displaced Farm Couples* Frederick O . Lorenz Departments of Sociology and Statistics Iowa State University Glen H. Elder Jr. Department of Sociology University of North Carolina W an-Ning Bao Department of Sociology Indiana University, Purdue University of Indianapolis K . A . S . Wickrama Rand D . Conger Institute for Social & Behavioral Research Iowa State University ABSTRACT This study links macro social change to emotional health through continuity and change in farming . Families were divided into four groups, depending on whether they were full-time farmers, part-time farmers, displaced farm families who had left farming during the 1980s, or nonfarm families. Using four waves of panel data, we estimated initial levels and subsequent changes in per capita family income, stressful life events, and depressive symptoms of wives and husbands . Between 1989 and 1992, full-time farm families' incomes decreased dramatically, while displaced farm families started 1989 with the lowest average per capita family income but saw the largest average increases in subsequent years. Farm status and changes in income predicted changes in stressful life events ; changes in stressful life events, in turn, predicted changes in wives' and husbands' reports of depressive symptoms. In this article we trace changes in rural couples' emotional health in the wake of the "farm crisis ." Although the crisis has receded as * During the past several years, support for this research has come from multiple sources including the National Institutes of Mental Health (Grants MH00567, MH19734, MH43270, MH48165, MH51391), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (Grant DA05347), the Bureau of Maternal and Child Health (Grant MCJ-109572), the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Successful Adolescent Develop- ment among Youth in High-Risk Settings, and the Iowa Agricultural and Home Eco- nomics Experiment Station ( Journal Paper 18103 of the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station, Ames, IA, Project 3320) . Address correspon- dence to Frederick O . Lorenz, Department of Sociology, 203 East Hall, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50010 . An earlier version of this paper was presented on August 14 , 1997 at the annual meetings of the Rural Sociological Society, held in Toronto .