POVERTY AMONG RURAL ELDERS - TRENDS, CONTEXT, AND DIRECTIONS FOR POLICY

Despite the improved fortunes of the elderly in general, rural elders continue to face substantial economic hardships. In 1990, 16.1% of non metropolitan elders were poor compared with 10.8% of their metropolita n counterparts. This article develops a conceptual framework to analyz e the higher than average poverty rates experienced by this group. Und erstanding the causes of poverty among the rural elderly requires a di fferent conceptual framework than that used to explain poverty among w orking aged persons. Poverty among rural elders represents the accumul ated effects of life experiences in environments of relative economic deprivation and of life course transitions, such as widowhood, that ha ve exposed them to elevated risks of poverty. The effect of community of residence on rural elders' economic well-being is more likely to be through the public sector than through the local economy, as would be the case for younger poor people. A multilevel approach that emphasiz es the life course and pub[ic sector capacity in the present area of r esidence is required to understand rural older people's disadvantaged position in U.S. society.