'Goin' down the road' or 'the Island way of life'? Student attitudes and values in the Hinterland

From 1983-90, introductory sociology students from the University of Prince Edward Island were questioned about two independent sets of attitudes, each conceptualized along a continuum--hinterland attachment-metropolis attraction (perception of the goals) and hinterland isolationism-metropolis integration (perception of the community). Thus, two different types of both parochialism and cosmopolitanism were created which, when cross-mixed, produced four ideal types. Multiple regression analysis with various correlates suggested by the research literature on community attachment and outmigration found that the systemic and rural outmigration models accounted for hinterland attachment and metropolis attraction, respectively and that the rural mystique and boom-town growth perspectives accounted for hinterland isolationism and metropolis integration, respectively. Different combinations of these determinants accounted for the four ideal types.