This study used Yun and Weaver's (2010) Attitudes toward Poverty Short Form (ATP-SF) of twenty-one items on a Likert-type scale to determine the poverty attitudes of 309 principals in a rural Appalachian state in the United States. The study compared the poverty attitudes from the ATP-SF scaled score as a dependent variable to the following demographics which were used as independent variables: social class origin, political orientation, gender, age, ethnicity/race, religiosity, Appalachian identity, experience, poverty training, school socioeconomic status and locale. This study replicated the factor structure found by Yun & Weaver (2010) and achieved a Cronbach's Alpha of 0.81. Three factors established for the scale were personal deficiency, stigma and structural perspective. The overall score poverty attitudes by respondents was 77.60 points which produced positive attitudes results on the interpretive scale. The study used both descriptive and inferential statistical analyses, including a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for significance testing of the independent variables. A stepwise regression was conducted to determine if any independent variables were predictive for poverty attitudes. Political orientation was identified as statistically significant at the p = 0.001. Liberal views were found to have more positive attitudes of poverty (versus conservative). Age was found to be statistically significant on the overall scale at p = 0.001 and achieved a p = 0.001 on the factor of stigma. Older respondents had more positive poverty attitudes than younger. Educational researchers need a dependable scale to measure poverty attitudes. Findings from this study demonstrate the utility of using the ATP-SF scale as a tool for measuring poverty attitudes for a variety of research purposes. Results indicated characteristics of school administrator's impact poverty attitudes. The results of the study identify areas for further study and implications for teacher and administrator training to offset the impact of poverty attitudes. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]