ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL: HANDLING FINANCIAL CHALLENGES AMONG LOW-INCOME OLDER ADULTS

Low income older adults often face financial challenges which increase their risk for earlier disability and mortality. This study explored the social norms, beliefs and practices relevant to handling financial challenges among low-income community-dwelling older adults residing near Baltimore, MD w...

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Autores principales: Samuel, Laura, Wright, Rebecca, Spahr, Melissa, Roberts, Laken C, Szanton, Sarah L
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6840147/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igz038.017
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author Samuel, Laura
Wright, Rebecca
Spahr, Melissa
Roberts, Laken C
Szanton, Sarah L
author_facet Samuel, Laura
Wright, Rebecca
Spahr, Melissa
Roberts, Laken C
Szanton, Sarah L
author_sort Samuel, Laura
collection PubMed
description Low income older adults often face financial challenges which increase their risk for earlier disability and mortality. This study explored the social norms, beliefs and practices relevant to handling financial challenges among low-income community-dwelling older adults residing near Baltimore, MD whom we recruited using convenience and snowball sampling. Four vignette-based focus group sessions included 28 participants. Using hierarchical thematic analysis, three key themes emerged. First, the theme “Rob Peter to pay Paul” describes the consensus that individuals must prioritize financial needs, which required individuals to “work with a budget”, apply for aid, “cry for [aid]” and, when needed, “work something out” with landlords and lenders. One participant described the amount of work by saying “We’re retired but we’re working for ourselves.” Secondly, the theme “Your rent should be first” describes how low income older adults prioritize housing over food and other needs because “resources for housing is a problem” and because homelessness is both more permanent and socially stigmatizing than hunger - “Don’t nobody know you’re hungry unless you tell them, but everybody know when you outdoors.” Finally, the theme “We need to put the word out” describes the consensus that public benefits and community resources should be made more visible and accessible. Many individuals only know about resources because they seek information (“you go and you find out”), but “ it’s hard to ask for help. ” These results can inform the development and improvement of financial and community programs and policies for low-income older adults addressing financial challenges.
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spelling pubmed-68401472019-11-13 ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL: HANDLING FINANCIAL CHALLENGES AMONG LOW-INCOME OLDER ADULTS Samuel, Laura Wright, Rebecca Spahr, Melissa Roberts, Laken C Szanton, Sarah L Innov Aging Session 515 (Paper) Low income older adults often face financial challenges which increase their risk for earlier disability and mortality. This study explored the social norms, beliefs and practices relevant to handling financial challenges among low-income community-dwelling older adults residing near Baltimore, MD whom we recruited using convenience and snowball sampling. Four vignette-based focus group sessions included 28 participants. Using hierarchical thematic analysis, three key themes emerged. First, the theme “Rob Peter to pay Paul” describes the consensus that individuals must prioritize financial needs, which required individuals to “work with a budget”, apply for aid, “cry for [aid]” and, when needed, “work something out” with landlords and lenders. One participant described the amount of work by saying “We’re retired but we’re working for ourselves.” Secondly, the theme “Your rent should be first” describes how low income older adults prioritize housing over food and other needs because “resources for housing is a problem” and because homelessness is both more permanent and socially stigmatizing than hunger - “Don’t nobody know you’re hungry unless you tell them, but everybody know when you outdoors.” Finally, the theme “We need to put the word out” describes the consensus that public benefits and community resources should be made more visible and accessible. Many individuals only know about resources because they seek information (“you go and you find out”), but “ it’s hard to ask for help. ” These results can inform the development and improvement of financial and community programs and policies for low-income older adults addressing financial challenges. Oxford University Press 2019-11-08 /pmc/articles/PMC6840147/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igz038.017 Text en © The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Session 515 (Paper)
Samuel, Laura
Wright, Rebecca
Spahr, Melissa
Roberts, Laken C
Szanton, Sarah L
ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL: HANDLING FINANCIAL CHALLENGES AMONG LOW-INCOME OLDER ADULTS
title ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL: HANDLING FINANCIAL CHALLENGES AMONG LOW-INCOME OLDER ADULTS
title_full ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL: HANDLING FINANCIAL CHALLENGES AMONG LOW-INCOME OLDER ADULTS
title_fullStr ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL: HANDLING FINANCIAL CHALLENGES AMONG LOW-INCOME OLDER ADULTS
title_full_unstemmed ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL: HANDLING FINANCIAL CHALLENGES AMONG LOW-INCOME OLDER ADULTS
title_short ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL: HANDLING FINANCIAL CHALLENGES AMONG LOW-INCOME OLDER ADULTS
title_sort robbing peter to pay paul: handling financial challenges among low-income older adults
topic Session 515 (Paper)
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6840147/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igz038.017
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