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Elderly Poverty Cluster, Urban Diversity, and the Expectation to Age in Place of Older People: The Case of Atlanta, Georgia

Population ageing is a world-wide phenomenon. The number of older people is expected to increase both absolutely and relatively, and a lot of Western and Asian countries already entered into the aged society beyond the aging society. Since this trend is anticipated to continue, population ageing will become a more critical and urgent issue in various institutions. In this sense, creating age-friendly neighborhood environments and the concept of ageing in place have increasingly been part of urban strategies. So far most studies have focused on the inner-city and urban areas, while spatial analyses of elderly poverty clusters have rarely been attempted. However, exploring where poor older people spatially concentrate is important because it may provide a justifiable basis for urban policies and studies. Likewise, neighborhood characteristics have not been mainly discussed in terms of ageing in place, even though older people who live in a deprived neighborhood may face several risks from distressed physical and social environments. In this study, therefore, I tried to explore where poor older people spatially concentrate and why they live there. This study is largely divided into two parts: exploratory analysis and testing hypotheses. First, spatial distributions of elderly and general poverty clusters were compared through hot spot analysis which examines where significant local clusters of high poverty rates exist. In addition, the degree of neighborhood deprivation was also compared using 11 indicators and the integrated index by poverty cluster types. The result of this study is that there is difference in spatial distribution between elderly and general poverty clusters. In particular, elderly poverty clusters are more likely to be located outside of the inner-city and in rural areas, while general poverty clusters are more likely to be located in the inner-city and urban, suburban areas. This finding suggests that elderly poverty related studies should cover rural areas and outside of the inner-city. Through spatial analyses of elderly poverty clusters, researchers can select appropriate study areas for empirical studies regarding to poverty, especially elderly poverty issues, and policy makers can decide where they preferentially support active ageing in place. As results of comparing neighborhood deprivation by poverty cluster types, I found that older people may stay put in a deprived neighborhood depending on which poverty cluster they live in when they decide to age in place, even though a neighborhood that features an elderly poverty cluster only is less deprived as unexpected. Therefore, policy makers should consider the location of neighborhood when they adapt urban policies to encourage older people to age in place, even if ageing in place has been favorable. In the second part of the study, I tried to identify determinants of the expectation to age in place of older people by using both individual and neighborhood characteristics. As neighborhood characteristics, urban diversity factors, that is, mixed-land use, residential density, housing age diversity, racial diversity, income diversity, and tenure diversity, were tested together with poverty cluster types and neighborhood stability through binary logistic regression and two-step hierarchical linear models. The result of this study suggests that urban diversity factors can influence the expectation to age in place of older people, and the effects of urban diversity vary by what poverty cluster older people live in. Therefore, more academic attention should be paid to neighborhood environments. Moreover, the result of regression and HLM models can help what physical or social environmental conditions policy makers need to consider when they support older people to age in place. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Urban & Regional Planning in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2017. / March 31, 2017. / Age in place, Elderly poverty cluster, Hot spot analysis, Urban diversity / Includes bibliographical references. / Rebecca Miles, Professor Directing Dissertation; Keon-Hyung Lee, University Representative; Petra Doan, Committee Member; Frances Berry, Committee Member.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_507700
ContributorsLee, Jin Hui (authoraut), Miles, Rebecca (professor directing dissertation), Lee, Keon-Hyung (university representative), Doan, Petra (committee member), Berry, Frances Stokes (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Social Sciences & Public Policy (degree granting college), Department of Urban & Regional Planning (degree granting departmentdgg)
PublisherFlorida State University, Florida State University
Source SetsFlorida State University
LanguageEnglish, English
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText, text, doctoral thesis
Format1 online resource (179 pages), computer, application/pdf
RightsThis Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them.

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