An amended form of the Older American's Status and Needs Assessment Questionnaire assessed the prevalence of adjustment, as measured by the Bradburn Affect Scale, in a random stratified sample of 301 female and 140 male elderly rural residents in Allegany County, New York. The relationship between adjustment and biosocial, demographic, social, and personal problems, political participation, retirement, income, and other pertinent variables was investigated along with interactions by gender. Biosocial (health and physical disabilities), social isolation, housing, feelings about work and retirement, and social control all contributed significantly to adjustment. Sex role interacted with social isolation, biosocial factors, and retirement, but there were no significant differences among most demographic variables, perceived personal problems, and self-reported social-personality factors. Health, retirement, marriage, and income played a more important role in psychological well-being for women than for men; the women respondents were older, more likely to be unmarried, and had much lower incomes than men. For both sexes, personal problems played a major role in maladjustment. Some sex differences were found in self-reported levels of health, number of physicians seen in the past year, religiosity, and feeling part of the neighborhood. All of these factors were more important in the negative affect of women than of men. (NRB)