This Program Project will undertake a comprehensive study of the social and economic functioning of older people in the context of a rapidly aging U.S. population. The unifying theme of this research is the dialectic of alternatives, constraints, and choices that affect elderly people's functioning, in four major dimensions of their lives: family ties and living arrangements, health, labor market participation and retirement, and financial status. Because the topics and issues of these categories are closely linked, they can be studied most effectively in a Program Project rather than in isolated studies. Because these links cross the boundaries of scientific disciplines, the project staff must be multidisciplinary, so that they can bring to bear the substance and formal tools of the various relevant academic fields. The Program Project will unite two important streams of aging research--demography and health-- which usually remain separate. Some of the Program Project's specific aims are to: produce a body of comprehensive research results that will substantially increase understanding of the social and economic functioning of elderly populations; foster an intellectually stimulating research environment by bringing together scholars from different disciplines with different perspectives on aging research; and provide the projects with management, administrative, and methodological support and communication links to ensure their cooperation and intellectual interaction.
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