Center for Retirement Research Partners with UMass Boston
To bring a broader perspective to issues affecting retirement and aging, the Center for Retirement Research (CRR) at Boston College is working with the Gerontology Institute and other researchers at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
The five-year arrangement is supporting research projects by UMass Boston researchers in collaboration with CRR and is funding summer research fellowships for UMass Boston undergraduates.
“UMass Boston’s expertise in qualitative research techniques such as focus groups infuse their work with the perspectives of underserved communities,” said Andrew Eschtruth, deputy director of CRR, which also supports this blog.
The partnership’s activities are funded by the U.S. Social Security Administration. The collaboration with UMass Boston, Eschtruth said, fits with the agency’s goal of broadening the network of researchers and students it supports. UMass Boston has deep connections with underserved communities in the Boston metropolitan area and beyond, and it serves a large population of students of color and first-generation students.
“Our expertise in areas such as financial security and long-term care costs complement the center’s focus,” said Jan Mutchler, director of the Gerontology Institute. “As a minority-serving institution, we especially value opportunities for our students to gain research experience and professional development through paid fellowships.”
Two joint research projects funded this year by Social Security are exploring how to improve communication about the agency’s benefits in the Black and Hispanic communities and the types of services that would provide the most support to caregivers based on their personal needs and preferences.
CRR is one of six research centers in Social Security’s Retirement and Disability Research Consortium. UMass Boston joins three other CRR affiliates: Syracuse University, the Urban Institute, and the Mathematica Center for Studying Disability Policy.
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I hope that UMass Boston will be careful to ensure their focus group participants are representative of populations of interest. Going to a church or community based organization and rounding up the first 100 willing people more or less guarantees an unrepresentative sample – most people bowl alone and have nothing to do with such organizations. But the approach suits those who choose to define individuals by reference to an assumed group identity.