Ordinary retirement: commonalities and continuity

Ténacité et flexibilité dans la poursuite de projets personnels: Impact sur le bien-être à la retraite

This research pertained to personal goals during retirement and especially to the influence of tenacity and flexibility on measures of psychological well-being. The participants (N = 147) had been retired for less than three years and were aged between 49 and 75 years (M = 58 years). The participants had to identify four personal goals and rate each of them along 15 dimensions. Psychological well-being was evaluated with scales of depression, self-esteem and life satisfaction. Regression analyses showed that flexibility in the presence of obstacles to the realization of goals accounts for 44 per cent of the variance in depression, 29 per cent of life satisfaction and 25 per cent of self-esteem. Tenacity had a more modest impact. Flexibility seems to be the strategy which is most useful in facing difficulties in the pursuit of goals during retirement.

Early Retirement Decisions and How They Affect Later Quality of Life

Older workers are often placed in an unenviable position in the face of stereotypes which define them as increasingly marginal in the work force, and view retirement in terms of status loss and disengagement. Yet voluntary early retirement schemes have been a recent feature of work organisations of all types in Britain, Western Europe and North America. The nature of the decision-making processes of those involved in such schemes has not been widely researched and such studies as have been conducted have not drawn on the existing framework of decision analysis. This paper reports the findings of two linked studies into the early retirement decisions of men working in Britain for a large multinational company in the manufacturing sector. The first investigated the factors deemed to be important for a group of men at the point of decision whilst the second investigated both the factors deemed to be important and the quality of life of a group of men who had taken the decision to retire early between 18 months and 3 years previously. Both studies indicated that the decision-making process is complex and cannot be reduced to single-factors like health or financial status. The most important factor in the quality of life of early retirees was the matching of expectations of further work at the point of decision. The studies illustrated the utility of a decision analysis approach to the study of early retirement.

The Relation between Self-Determination and Retirement Satisfaction among Active Retired Individuals

Little is known about the motivational forces leading retired individuals to engage in post-retirement activities and how they could be related to satisfaction with retirement. Using the self-determination framework, the purpose of the present exploratory study was to examine the nature of active retirees' motivation and its impact on satisfaction with life in retirement. The Global Motivation Scale and measures of satisfaction with retirement were administered to 150 active retired individuals engaged in organized post-retirement activities in a University-based organization. Results revealed that these individuals were mainly characterized by higher levels of intrinsic motivation for knowledge, stimulation and accomplishment, rather than extrinsic dimensions. Regression analysis further demonstrated that intrinsic motivation for both accomplishment and stimulation were positively related to satisfaction with retirement, over and above the significant contribution of time since retirement, anticipated satisfaction with retirement, and subjective health. This exploratory study highlights the motivational mechanisms through which post-retirement behaviors could positively influence satisfaction with life in retirement among active retirees.

Honeymoons and Joint Lunches: Effects of Retirement and Spouse's Employment on Depressive Symptoms

With hypotheses derived from a life course perspective in conjunction with life event stress and role theories, we examine whether a spouse's employment and length of retirement affect a person's postretirement depressive symptoms and whether such effects differ by gender. Analyses use pooled data from Waves 1-4 of the Health and Retirement Survey, using a subsample of married individuals who either remained continuously employed over time or completely retired since the Wave 1 interviews (N = 2,695). Recently retired men seem to be negatively affected by their spouses' continuous employment when compared with men whose wives were continuously not employed. In contrast, spouses' joint retirement has a beneficial influence on both recently retired and longer-retired men. However, for recently retired men, the positive effect of wives' retirement seems to be contingent on spouses' enjoyment of joint activities. Among women, effects of spouses' employment occur only among very recently retired wives (0-6 months). These wives report more depressive symptoms if their spouses were already nonemployed prior to wives' retirement. These results demonstrate the complexity of retirement adaptation processes and suggest that marital context plays an important role in retirement well-being.