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VULNERABILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL STRESS OF OLDER ADULTS IN DEPRIVED NEIGHBOURHOODS IN THE NETHERLANDS
Author(s) -
VAN DER MEER MARIEKE,
FORTUIJN JOOS DROOGLEEVER,
THISSEN FRANS
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.766
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1467-9663
pISSN - 0040-747X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9663.2008.00439.x
Subject(s) - vulnerability (computing) , older people , competence (human resources) , psychology , context (archaeology) , gerontology , geography , social psychology , medicine , computer security , archaeology , computer science
Recent policy rests on the assumption that it is better for older people to live independently within the community for as long as possible. A related assumption is that the local community forms a supportive context for vulnerable older people; the environment can compensate the limitations resulting from growing old. However, Lawton's ‘environmental docility hypothesis’, in which the interaction between characteristics of the environment and a person's competence is described, forms a reason to be more careful with this assumption. In a survey of 1,939 Dutch older adults carried out in 2002–2003 this hypothesis is explored for older people living in deprived and non‐deprived neighbourhoods. The results of the analysis seem to be in line with Lawton's hypothesis. In non‐deprived neighbourhoods, no differences in environmental stress are found between vulnerable and non‐vulnerable older adults, while in deprived neighbourhoods vulnerable older adults experience significantly higher levels of environmental stress than non‐vulnerable older adults.