The Effect of Rural Guidance Plan on the Subjective Quality of Life among Rural Communities (Case Study: Fariman County)

Extended abstract
1. INTRODUCTION
In the literature of rural development, the main goal is to promote the quality of rural life and the welfare of the villagers, especially the socio-economic status of a particular class of people, i.e., the poor villagers. To upgrade the physical structure of the village is among the ways to achieve this goal. Therefore, rural construction has been among the measures taken by the government to tackle this issue over the last years, which include not only changes in rural communities, production methods and economic organization of rural communities, but also measures relevant to improving infrastructure, political, and social matters and the relation of the community members with each other. Therefore, one of the most fundamental issues in the aftermath of the Islamic Revolution of Iran, is how to improve the socio-economic status or the living conditions of the people living in small villages. Their share in economic and social development is too modest. Today, rural Conduct plans are the most important means of directing rural development in Iran. The final goal of such plans is to provide the conditions for welfare and improving the quality of rural life, and maintain it in rural areas. Two decades after the implementation of rural Conduct plans in Iran, and having learned valuable experiences, it is essential to know what the implications of these plans are for the rural communities, and whether they have reached their ultimate goals, i.e., improved quality of life, and providing a lively and healthy environment for rural people? Therefore, the main research question is to what extent have the rural conduct plans been effective in improving the quality of life of the villagers in Fariman County?
2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Rural conduct plans are among the rural construction plans which can play a fundamental role in development of rural areas. These projects, with their potentials and - capacities can make ground for improvement of public facilities and welfare, such as modernization of rural housing, newly made sidewalks, and residential space, improving the lives of the villagers and their participation. Rural conduct plans are the revitalization of rural areas in social, economic and physical dimensions.
Quality of life is a broad concept that has many definitions. Some have defined it as the viability of a region, others have defined it as a measure for the attraction and some have defined as welfare, social well-being, happiness, satisfaction, etc. Therefore, the quality of life is a complex, multi-dimensional and qualitative term about the conditions and population in a special geographical area that relies on subjective or qualitative indicators and on objective or subjective ones, too.
3. METHODOLOGY
The research is an applied one conducted in descriptive-analytical and correlational method using survey and questionnaires. The population included 22 villages in which rural conduct plans have been implemented; eight villages with a total population of 3835 households were selected. Employing the Cochran formula, 249 rural households were selected from the villages of the study area, they were interviewed based on random sampling method. Data collected from the questionnaires, were analyzed using statistical analysis methods in SPSS, and fitness research model in EQS software.
4. DISCUSSION
Step-by-step regression was used to assess the effectiveness of rural conduct plans on subjective dimension of quality of life. According to coefficient of determination that shows the specification of a variance and variation of the dependent variable through independent variable, in the final stage, it was 0.57 which indicates the indicators of independent variable explain 57% of variation of dependent variable. According to the results, the model was implemented in four stages, and in each stage the most influential variable was introduced to the model. At the end, all the variables, land use and distribution of services, rural environment, quality of housing and street network were introduced to the model which explained 57 percent of variations in quality of life. The amount of P-Value or the significance level is 0.000, which is smaller than 0.05. Therefore, the null hypothesis test, implying the insignificance of regression model, was rejected with 99% confidence. Eventually, we may conclude that among the indicators of implementing the rural Conduct plans, ‘to maintain the land-use’ and ‘distribution of services’ had the greatest impact on the subjective dimension of villagers’ quality of life.
5. CONCLUSION
Currently, the rural Conduct plans are viewed as the most significant and the only rural development document in our country whose only aim is to improve the quality of rural life and bring more prosperity into rural areas. The results show that there is a direct and complete correlation between the variables (correlation coefficient 0.75). In other words, there is a strong and positive relationship between implementing rural Conduct plans and subjective improvement in the quality of villagers’ life in the study area. As the success rate of rural Conduct plans increases, the quality of life of the villagers increases as well. Therefore, to achieve the desired objectives, all individuals involved in this project, including shareholders who are rural residents and the Islamic Revolution Housing Foundation, should play their role in better implementation of the project. It is essential that all those involved in the project help each other to achieve all-round development of rural areas, as the development of rural areas makes way for national development.