Janice I. Farkas Wassel

Dr. Wassel, Director of The UNCG Gerontology Program and Co-Director of the dual degree M.S. Gerontology/MBA, says: After completing my Ph.D. at Penn State University in Sociology and Demography with a minor in Gerontology, I went to Duke University as a postdoctoral fellow and research associate. While working on my dissertation, I interned at NIH/NIA for a summer in Washington D.C. In 1998, I joined Penn State University's Commonwealth Campus at Delaware County as an Assistant Professor of Sociology. Recently, I returned back to North Carolina where I am the Director of the Graduate Gerontology Program at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. My research interests include the role that employer pensions have on job mobility patterns for women, the effect which caregiving has on retirement decisions and the risk of caregiving across the life course for men and women. Recently, I assisted the American Chemical Society in designing a survey for "Mature Chemists." My analysis of this data will determine the effect industrial downsizing has on retirement plans and post-retirement employment for professionals. Additional interests include the social and economic outcomes for cancer survivors, healthy aging, the determinates of health coverage after retirement, and post-retirement career strategies for professionals.My teaching interests include: Sociology of the Family, Aging and Adult Development, Research Methods, and Sociology of Aging.

There are 9 included publications by Janice I. Farkas Wassel :

TitleDateViewsBrief Description
Boomerang Burdens: Back to the Nest 2008 1695 Many Americans are having difficulty saving money. But baby boomers, who are often perceived as being self-centered, self-seeking, self-interested, self-absorbed, and self-indulgent, may actually have been too generous to their families at the expens...
Couples’ Retirement Timing in the United States in the 1990s: The Impact of Market and Family Role Demands on Joint Work Exits 2002 1853 The timing of retirement among married couples is a complex process. As women remain attached to the labor market for longer periods of their lives and as they bring market resources such as pensions and health insurance to the couple’s retirement de...
Factors Influencing Parental Caregiving by Adult Women: Variations by Care Intensity and Duration 1996 4621 This article examines a variety of demographic and structural characteristics that influence die provision of care to elderly parents by adult daughters. In particular, variations in these characteristics by the duration and intensity of care provisi...
Family Aging and the Practice of Elder Law: A Financial Gerontology Perspective 2007 1496 Financial Gerontology is an emerging field that brings applied social gerontological education to financial services professionals. These practitioners are already well educated in their primary fields, but are seeking to add aging and gerontology to...
Gender Differences in Kin Contact and Reliance 1994 1222 Intergenerational research has focused on contact of parent and adult children in the United States and their reliance on one another. But research has not addressed how these intergenerational relationships in the United State compare to those in ot...
Healthy Aging in North Carolina 2008 2993 The “longevity revolution” is here. Regardless of whether any North Carolinians born today will live to the 120 to 150 years projected by Dr. Robert Butler at the International Longevity Center, North Carolina’s current older population is neverthele...
Kin Support and Women’s Labor Force Experiences in Midlife 1992 1296 Women in midlife continue to assume the roles of "caregiver" and "mother" in contemporary American society (Hagemann-White, 1984). These traditional roles often clash with new roles arising from ongoing demographic change, especially the increase in ...
The Making of the Senior Sandwich 2007 1226 Financial stability is important at all stages of life, but for older adults who may have fewer earnings options, it’s essential. While retirement planning and saving should begin early, young families frequently postpone it for other household consu...
The Pension Mix for Women in Middle and Late Life: More Evidence of the Changing Employment Relationship 1998 1087 The effects of life-course, employment and labor market characteristics on the probability of pension participation and on type of pension coverage are estimated for two cohorts of working women in middle and late life, respectively. The National Lon...