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Aging in Rural Environments

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Elderly People and the Environment

Part of the book series: Human Behavior and Environment ((HUBE,volume 7))

Abstract

In 1978 some 8,467,000 persons over 65 years of age (approximately 38% of the noninstitutionalized elderly population) resided outside standard metropolitan statistical areas (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1979). An increasing proportion of these old people live in small-town and rural environments. During the 1970s the significant numbers of elderly who had “aged in place” in such settings were complemented by a steady stream of return migrants from metropolitan areas (Aday & Miles, 1982; Beale, 1976; Bowles, 1978; Fuguitt & Tordella, 1980; Koebernick & Beegle, 1978). As this transition has occurred, a few pioneering anthologies (Atchley & Byerts, 1975; Youmans, 1967) have been supplemented by a proliferation of research on the rural and small town elderly (Ansello & Cipolla, 1980; Kim & Wilson, 1981; Wilkinson, Rowles, & Maxwell, 1982). Unfortunately, very little of this research has been concerned with the environmental experience, defined as physical, cognitive, and emotional transactions with the physical setting, of rural old people.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology and Geography, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, 26506, USA

    Graham D. Rowles

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Social and Behavioral Science, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

    Irwin Altman

  2. Philadelphia Geriatric Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

    M. Powell Lawton

  3. Division of Individual and Family Studies, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA

    Joachim F. Wohlwill

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Rowles, G.D. (1984). Aging in Rural Environments. In: Altman, I., Lawton, M.P., Wohlwill, J.F. (eds) Elderly People and the Environment. Human Behavior and Environment, vol 7. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2171-0_5

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