title: A Life Course Approach to Understanding Poverty Among Older American Adults.
abstract: A relatively new strategy for studying the prevalence of poverty in America is to analyze it as a potential life course event. We use such an approach in order to examine the likelihood of both income and asset poverty for individuals between the ages of 60 and 90. Nearly half of all elderly Americans will encounter at least one year of poverty or near poverty across these ages. In addition, 58 percent of those between the ages of 60 and 84 will at some point fail to have enough liquid assets to allow them to weather an unanticipated expense or downturn in income. The policy and practice implications of these findings are discussed.
authors.affiliation: George Warren Brown School of Social Work Washington University St. Louis, Missouri 63130 markr@wustl.edu (314) 935-5694.
authors.forename: Mark R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Rank
authors.affiliation: George Warren Brown School of Social Work Washington University St. Louis, Missouri 63130.
authors.forename: Herbert S
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Hadley
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Social Work University of Denver Denver, Colorado 80208.
authors.forename: James Herbert
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Williams
references.citation: J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 1999 Jul;54(4):S184-93
references.pmid: 12382596
references.citation: Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2009 Nov;163(11):994-9
references.pmid: 19884589
references.citation: Demography. 2009 Nov;46(4):717-37
references.pmid: 20084826