ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS:
URBAN STUDIES
Volume 6
THE ELDERLY IN
POOR URBAN NEIGHBORHOODS
THE ELDERLY IN POOR URBAN NEIGHBORHOODS
VALERIE SLAUGHTER BROWN
First published in 1997 by Garland Publishing, Inc.
This edition first published in 2018
by Routledge
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1997 Valerie Slaughter Brown
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-138-89482-2 (Set)
ISBN: 978-1-315-09987-3 (Set) (ebk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-89523-2 (Volume 6) (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-17954-4 (Volume 6) (ebk)
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THE ELDERLY IN
POOR URBAN
NEIGHBORHOODS
VALERIE SLAUGHTER BROWN
GARLAND PUBLISHING, I NC.
N EW Y ORK & L ONDON / 1997
To my mother, Sally Mae Calloway Slaughter, who nurtures me like a well-tended garden, and to my son, Bacari Kahron Brown.
Contents
Copyright 1997 Valerie Slaughter Brown All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brown, Valerie Slaughter.
The elderly in poor urban neighborhoods / Valerie Slaughter Brown.
p. cm. (Garland studies on the elderly in America)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8153-2540-1 (alk. paper)
1. Poor agedOhioClevelandSocial conditions. 2. Poor agedOhioClevelandEconomic conditions. 3. Inner cities OhioCleveland. 4. Social problemsOhioCleveland. 5. Cleveland (Ohio)Social conditions. 6. Cleveland (Ohio) Economic conditions. I. Title. II. Series.
HQ1064.U6033 1997
305.260977132dc20 96-46552
Printed on acid-free, 250-year-life paper
Manufactured in the United States of America
Sampling Frame
Zero-order Correlation and Univariate Statistics
Regression Results for Direct and Interaction Effects on PA, NA, and Residential Satisfaction
Decomposition of Effects of Suprapersonal Environment and Elder Vulnerability Characteristics on Residential Satisfaction and PA and NA
Variable Frequencies According to Objective Neighborhood Poverty Type
Coding Scheme and Psychometric Properties
Urban Ecological Model of Subjective Weil-Being Among the Elderly
Urban Ecological Interaction Model of Subjective Weil-Being Among the Elderly
Hypothesized Effects of Suprapersonal Environment and Characteristics of Elder Vulnerability on Subjective Weil-Being
Hypothesized Interaction Effects of Suprapersonal Environment and Characteristics of Elder Vulnerability on Subjective Weil-Being
Statistically Significant Effects of Suprapersonal Environment and Elder Vulnerability Characteristics on Residential Satisfaction and Positive Affect
Statistically Significant Effects of Suprapersonal Environment and Elder Vulnerability Characteristics on Residential Satisfaction and Negative Affect
Inner-city neighborhoods are the predominant places of residence of minority elders in America. Many of these neighborhoods are documented centers of urban blight and neglect. Nationally, a substantial percent of the residents live at or below the official poverty level. Intuitively one would think that these living conditions would negatively impact the well-being of its residents.
Considerable research has been done to identify neighborhood influences on childrens affective states, motivation, and behavior. This population, along with the elderly, are this nations largest dependent groups. In contrast, little research has been done to determine what impact living among poor neighbors has upon older Americans, specifically upon their psychological well-being and neighborhood satisfaction.
Scholars and the public tend to look at the poor and impoverished neighborhoods as fraught with liabilities. However, as a child growing up during the 60s and early 70s in such a neighborhood with many elderly residents on the East Side of Cleveland, I saw that we tended to look at our human condition and neighborhood in ways that highlighted the assets. Yet, we were still aware of our neighborhoods liabilities and how they shaped our daily lives. This way of perceiving our situation and the existence of an elderly support network fostered hope and stimulated motivation to rise above our immediate circumstances. The elderly seemed to be very happy and involved in the neighborhood. They were a treasured neighborhood resource for younger people. But that was several decades ago.
Having received a concurrent education in nursing and sociology at the undergraduate and graduate levels, I was eager to use my sociological imagination to examine quality-of-life issues relevant to inner-city residents. I set out upon this endeavor both as a nurse and sociologist. As a Child Health Nurse Clinical Specialist during the late 70s to late 80s, I practiced in several of Clevelands inner-city hospitals and community-based clinics. I cared for high risk infants, i.e., premature and/or low birth weight newborns, born to teenage mothers living in urban neighborhoods with high levels of poverty. Oftentimes in the hospital emergency room I nursed people who were criminally victimized and injured in those same neighborhoods. My observations and other data then suggested that the neighborhood conditions and residents quality of life had steeply declined since my tenure in such a neighborhood.
It was during the late 80s that my professional activities became more focused on sociological theory and empirical research. As a sociologist I wondered: Do older Americans in poor inner-city neighborhoods today experience high residential satisfaction and psychological well-being despite witnessing at least four contemporary research-documented impediments: 1) the migration of middle-class neighbors and jobs to the suburbs, 2) increased geographical spread of poverty, 3) increased concentration of poverty within a given neighborhood, and 4) increased prevalence of social problems in inner-city neighborhoods? I conducted this study to answer that question.
As a proponent of person-environment interaction theory, a review of the relevant literature led me to formulate the Urban Ecological Model of Aging. In chapter one I discuss sociological theories for their failure to
