MCA: Mapping Rural Youth Narrative Processes to Understand and Expand Future Pathways for Living and Working in Rural Communities

Rural communities across the U.S. face ongoing challenges in developing and retaining a skilled workforce, which is essential to sustaining long-term stability in both established and emerging rural industries, including industries in priority areas such as biotechnology and advanced manufacturing. Adolescence is a critical period when young people begin forming ideas about education, work, and where they see themselves in the future. This project aims to serve the national interest by deepening understanding of developmental processes involved in how rural youth encounter, interpret, and respond to messages from peers, families, schools, and community institutions about what it means to live a successful and fulfilling life in a rural setting. By examining how these messages shape postsecondary expectations, aspirations, and decision-making, the project generates insights to help rural educators, employers, and community leaders develop more coordinated, youth-centered strategies that expand rural opportunity and ensure federal investments support long-term regional economic and social vitality. The central research question in this project examines how multilevel narratives influence young people’s understanding of what it means to live a successful life and pursue meaningful work, and how they accept, adapt, or resist these messages. Using mixed-methods survey research and participatory data collection with rural adolescents, the project explores how youth make sense of postsecondary planning and life pathways within their local context. The study analyzes narrative patterns and meaning-making processes across individual and community levels to understand their impact on postsecondary aspirations and decision-making. Methodologically, the project advances youth-centered research in rural areas by integrating asynchronous, mobile-based tools that support flexible and context-sensitive narrative data collection. This work informs strategic communication efforts, workforce development initiatives, and educational and community support systems that engage rural youth as active agents in shaping their futures, while advancing national efforts to strengthen the rural talent pipeline. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.