Exploring the Relationship between Marital Status and Women's Retirement Satisfaction

Changes in life satisfaction during the transition to retirement: findings from the FIREA cohort study

Life satisfaction is an essential construct of well-being that is tied to behavioral, emotional, social and psychological outcomes. This study aimed to examine changes in total and domain-specific life satisfaction during the retirement transition and additionally examine whether those changes differ by gender, occupation, health and spousal working status. Aging public sector employees (n = 3543) from the Finnish Retirement and Aging Study cohort study were followed up annually before and after retirement. Total life satisfaction score (range 4-20) was computed by summing up the responses in four domains (interestingness, happiness, easiness and togetherness). The mean and mean change estimates and their 95% CI were calculated by using the linear regression models with generalized estimating equations, adjusted for age, gender, occupation, health and marital status. Total life satisfaction score improved among the entire study population during the retirement transition and remained stable thereafter. The improvement was greater among women versus men (gender * time interaction p = 0.004), among those with suboptimal health before retirement vs. those who had good (health * time p < 0.0001) and those who had no spouse vs. those who had a retired or working spouse (spousal-status * time p < 0.0001). In case of domain-specific life satisfaction scores, the greatest improvement was observed in the easiness domain. Life satisfaction improves during the retirement transition period, especially among women, those with suboptimal health and those living without a spouse. The improvement was considerably greater in the easiness domain than any other domains. Life satisfaction remained improved and stable during the post-retirement period.

Exploring the relationship between working history, retirement transition and women's life satisfaction

How does the transition to retirement affect female subjective wellbeing? The major theoretical perspectives that have been applied as frameworks to study the heterogeneous adjustment to retirement include role theory and continuity theory. They have often been integrated with a lifecourse approach, which allows us to study retirement as a transition set inside a lifelong process. In this paper, I assess how working life courses are related to changes in subjective wellbeing before and after retirement, using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and concentrating on women. Firstly, I conduct sequence analysis and cluster analysis to identify groups of typical working lifecourses from ages 20 to 50. Secondly, regression models estimate how retirement transition is associated with changes in life satisfaction, according to the different working trajectories. The results show that some of the trajectories, constituted of discontinuity or part-time periods, exhibit a continuous increase in life satisfaction, passing from employment (or unemployment) to retirement. For other trajectories, such as the full-time one, retirement seems not to have implications for subjective wellbeing.

Longitudinal Evidence for the Effects of Social Group Engagement on the Cognitive and Mental Health of Chinese Retirees

BACKGROUND

Research investigating the health benefits of social group participation in the retirement transition has provided little insight into the longitudinal effects on cognitive health and the generalizability of these relationships to non-Western samples. The present paper addresses these issues by examining the effects of social group engagement on the cognitive performance and depression symptoms of Chinese older adults followed over 4 years in their transition to retirement.

METHODS

Using the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) data, a sample of 1,297 Chinese seniors transitioning to retirement were followed between 2011 and 2013, and then 2 years later (in 2015) after retirement. Group-based social engagement was used to predict retiree cognitive performance and depression symptoms across time.

RESULTS

After controlling for established demographic covariates and close relationship factors at baseline, social group engagement at baseline positively predicted overall cognitive performance and depression symptoms. Moreover, positive change in group engagement was associated with reduced decline in cognitive performance over the 4-year retirement transition period.

DISCUSSION

The current findings demonstrate the generalizability of the health benefits of social group engagement to cognitive health and to a non-Western (Chinese) sample of retirees.

Reasons for Retirement and Retirement Satisfaction

Abstract This study aims to verify the validity of the retirement satisfaction inventory (RSI) for Brazilians and its invariance with regard to gender, age, education, marital status, income and region of the country, and to investigate whether the reasons for retirement influence a person's retirement satisfaction. At total of 1,002 retirees participated in the study, including both men and women ranging in age from 44 to 88. The analyses indicated RSI being subdivided into two scales: i) the scale of satisfaction with retirement, and (ii) the reasons for retirement with good psychometric characteristics. The latter was found to be a predictor of the former. The instruments were structured differently than in other countries, but they were shown to be applicable in the Brazilian context, especially with regard to assessing interventions such as retirement preparation programs.

Preparations for Old Age and Well-Being in Later Life in Thailand: Gender Matters?

Data from the 2011 Survey of Older Persons in Thailand examines the association between preparations for old age (financial, health, caregiving, living arrangements, and spiritual) and three measures of well-being: financial satisfaction, life satisfaction, and physical health. The study further explores the role of social stratification and the gendered nature of these relationships. The sample ( N = 10,235) is restricted to adults 60 years and above, who are retired and answered the survey independently. Multivariate logistic regression analyses indicate that different forms of preparation are positively associated with post-retirement well-being for men and women but socioeconomic resources are positively associated with all three well-being outcomes. Furthermore, for women, there are significant negative interaction effects of income and financial preparation on life satisfaction, as well as negative interaction effects of disability and caregiver preparation on self-rated health. Implications for long-term care, socioeconomic inequality, and gender inequality in paid labor are discussed.

Missing Work After Retirement: The Role of Life Histories in the Retirement Adjustment Process

Purpose of the Study:

Although the process of adjustment to retirement is often assumed to be related to experiences earlier in life, quantitative empirical insights regarding these relationships are limited. This study aims to improve our understanding of adjustment to the loss of the work role, by conceptualizing retirement as a multidimensional process embedded in the individual life course.

Design and Methods:

Analyses are based on panel data collected in 2001, 2006–2007, and 2011 among Dutch retirees (N = 1,004). The extent to which retirees miss aspects of the work role (money/income, social contacts, status) is regressed on information about earlier life experiences, resources, and retirement transition characteristics.

Results:

The incidence of adjustment difficulties varies across dimensions. Predictors differ as well. A steep upward career path is associated with fewer financial adjustment difficulties but with more difficulties adjusting to the loss of status. Compared with continuously married retirees, divorced retirees without a partner are more likely to miss the social dimensions of work and those who repartnered are more likely to miss financial resources. The longer individuals are retired, the less likely they are to miss work-related social contacts.

Implications:

Changing life course experiences might have important consequences for retirement processes of future retirees.

Psychological well-being in retirement: the effects of personal and gendered contextual resources

Although prior research points to the gendered nature of work and private routines, surprisingly few studies have explored the influence of gender on the sources of psychological well-being in retirement. Drawing on resource theories and theories on the gendered division of labor, this study examines how preretirement resources relate to retirees' psychological well-being by using data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. It is hypothesized that possessing key resources prior to retirement as well as losing or gaining resources in the transition to retirement influence retirees' well-being and that these effects are partially conditioned by gender. Results indicate that preretirement physical health, tenacity in goal pursuit, and flexibility in goal adjustment are beneficial for men's and women's well-being alike. By contrast, financial assets and job dissatisfaction are more strongly related to men's psychological well-being in retirement and preretirement social contacts to that of women. Thus, the study underscores the importance of considering gendered resources in retirement research.

Beyond Health and Wealth: Predictors of Women's Retirement Satisfaction

Despite empirical support for the positive effects of health and wealth on retirement satisfaction, alternative variables also play a key role in helping to shape women's assessment of retirement. In the present study, we explore personal and psychosocial predictors of women's retirement satisfaction while controlling for financial security and health. Data from 330 retired women were analyzed using stepwise regression analysis. Results indicate the most significant predictors of women's retirement satisfaction are self-esteem, mastery, emotional support, and ethnicity. Financial security remained a significant predictor of satisfaction; whereas health did not. Suggestions are made to recognize the importance of women's psychological health in retirement, examine different types of social support in relation to stage of retirement, and incorporate diverse audiences in women's retirement research.