scholarly journals Changes in Neighborhood-Level Concentrated Disadvantage and Social Networks Among Older Americans

2020 ◽  
pp. 073346482096905
Author(s):  
Jason Settels

Close social networks provide older persons with resources, including social support, that maintain their well-being. While scholarship shows how networks change over time, a dearth of research investigates changing social contexts as causes of network dynamics. Using the first two waves of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project survey ( N = 1,776), this study shows how rising neighborhood-level concentrated disadvantage through the Great Recession of 2007–2009 was associated with smaller close networks, largely due to fewer new close ties gained, among older Americans. Worsening neighborhood circumstances pose obstacles to older residents’ acquisition of new close ties, including heightened fear, lower generalized trust, stress and depression, and declines in local institutions that attract both residents and nonresidents.

2020 ◽  
pp. 215686931989556 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Settels

The changing economic fortunes of cities influence mental health. However, the mechanisms through which this occurs are underexplored. I address this gap by investigating the Great Recession of 2007-2009. Using the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project survey ( N = 1,341), I study whether rises in cities’ home foreclosure rates and declines in median home prices through the Great Recession increase older persons’ depressive symptoms. I also study possible mediation through household assets declines. I find that increases in cities’ home foreclosure rates and declines in median home prices increase depressive symptoms beyond the effects of personal financial losses. Results show no evidence of mediation through asset loses, suggesting effects through other channels. Supplementary analyses reveal less direct links between changes in city-level unemployment rates and median household incomes and changes in depressive symptoms.


2021 ◽  
pp. 153568412098099
Author(s):  
Jason Settels

American cities and neighborhoods vary in their residents’ typical levels of mental health. Despite scholarship emphasizing that we cannot thoroughly understand city and neighborhood problems without investigating how they are intertwined, limited research examines how city and neighborhood effects interact as they impact health. I investigate these interactions through a study of the effects of the Great Recession of 2007–2009. Using Waves 1 (2005–2006) and 2 (2010–2011) of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project survey ( N = 1,341) and in accordance with the compound disadvantage model, I find through fixed-effects linear regression models that city- and neighborhood-level economic declines combine multiplicatively as they impact older Americans’ depressive symptoms. I furthermore find that this effect is only partly based on personal socioeconomic changes, suggesting contextual channels of effect. My results show that we cannot fully understand the effects of city-level changes without also considering neighborhood-level changes.


Author(s):  
James P. Ziliak

I examine trends in the material well-being of working-class households using data from the Current Population Survey in the two decades surrounding the Great Recession. In the years leading up to the Great Recession, average earnings, homeownership, and insurance coverage all fell, and absolute poverty and food insecurity accelerated. After-tax incomes were, for the most part, stagnant. The economic hemorrhaging either abated or reversed, however, in the decade after the Great Recession, especially for the least skilled and for households headed by a Hispanic person. This includes robust earnings growth, which led to declines in earnings inequality, absolute poverty, and food insecurity, coupled with increased insurance coverage and a modest rebound in after-tax incomes. As many of these recent advances likely stalled with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, I discuss various policy options.


2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (15) ◽  
pp. 1279-1284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesús Peiró-Palomino ◽  
Francesco Perugini ◽  
Andrés J Picazo-Tadeo

2018 ◽  
Vol 100 (2) ◽  
pp. 174-187
Author(s):  
Carol L. Cleaveland ◽  
Debra Lattanzi Shutika

Social work scholarship on neoliberalism—the dominant ideology and policies shaping access to housing, jobs, healthcare, and education—is in its infancy. This study examines the ground-level impact of the subprime mortgage crisis that triggered the Great Recession in 2008, examining how homeowners interpreted the changes to their neighborhood as they witnessed a remarkably high rate of foreclosures during the economic collapse of 2008-2010. Residents of a suburban community were unaware of the lending and banking practices that transformed their neighborhoods, though these policies arguably depreciated house values and a sense of well-being. Not knowing the culpability of predatory lenders in the crisis, some residents turned to an anti-immigrant social movement to preserve their community.


2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 379-397
Author(s):  
Markus H Schafer ◽  
Jason Settels ◽  
Laura Upenieks

Abstract The private home is a crucial site in the aging process, yet the upkeep of this physical space often poses a challenge for community-dwelling older adults. Previous efforts to explain variation in disorderly household conditions have relied on individual-level characteristics, but ecological perspectives propose that home environments are inescapably nested within the dynamic socioeconomic circumstances of surrounding spatial contexts, such as the metro area. We address this ecological embeddedness in the context of the Great Recession, an event in which some U.S. cities saw pronounced and persistent declines across multiple economic indicators while other areas rebounded more rapidly. Panel data (2005–6 and 2010–11) from a national survey of older adults were linked to interviewer home evaluations and city-level economic data. Results from fixed-effects regression support the hypothesis that older adults dwelling in struggling cities experienced an uptick in disorderly household conditions. Findings emphasize the importance of city-specificity when probing effects of a downturn. Observing changes in home upkeep also underscores the myriad ways in which a city’s most vulnerable residents— older adults, in particular—are affected by its economic fortunes.


Author(s):  
Rachel E. Dunifon ◽  
Kathleen M. Ziol-Guest ◽  
Kimberly Kopko

U.S. children today have increasingly diverse living arrangements. In 2012, 10 percent of children lived with at least one grandparent; 8 percent lived in three-generational households, consisting of a parent and a grandparent; while 2 percent lived with a grandparent and no parent in the household. This article reviews the literature on grandparent coresidence and presents new research on children coresiding with grandparents in modern families. Findings suggest that grandparent coresidence is quite common and that its prevalence increased during the Great Recession. Additionally, these living arrangements are diverse themselves, varying by the marital status of the parent, the home in which the family lives, and the economic well-being of the family. Suggestions for future research are also proposed.


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