Retirement Adjustment in Germany From 1996 to 2014

Abstract

The context of retirement has changed over the last decades, but there is little knowledge on whether the quality of retirement adjustment has changed as well. Changes in retirement regulations and historical differences in resources may affect the quality of adjustment and increase inequalities between different socioeconomic groups. In the present study, we investigated historical differences in retirement adjustment by comparing cross-sectional samples of retirees from 1996, 2002, 2008, and 2014, based on the population-based German Ageing Survey. Adjustment was measured with three different indicators (perceived change in life after retirement, retirement satisfaction, adjustment difficulties). Retirement satisfaction was higher in later samples, but for the other two outcomes, there was no evidence for systematic increases or decreases in levels of retirement adjustment with historical time over the studied period. White-collar workers reported better adjustment than blue-collar workers did, and for two of three outcomes, this effect was stable over time. The white-collar workers’ advantage concerning retirement satisfaction, however, increased. We conclude that in Germany, at least for those who retire within the usual time window, adjustment quality has not changed systematically over the examined 18-year period. We only found mixed evidence for a growing social inequality in the retirement adjustment. However, as individual agency in choosing one’s retirement timing and pathway is increasingly restricted, social inequalities in well-being before retirement may increase.

Preretirement resources and postretirement life satisfaction change trajectory: Examining the mediating role of retiree experience during retirement transition phase.

“…Among the six types of resources we examined, physical health was the only one that did not show any significant indirect effect on life satisfaction via retirement transition experience. In line with the Chinese retirement context, the current sample was younger ( M = 52.12, SD = 4.36) compared to the retiree samples typically recruited in other countries with an older normative retirement age (e.g., Henning et al, 2022; van Solinge & Henkens, 2008; Wang, 2007). As a result, older workers in our sample were generally healthy as indicated by high levels of physical health with relatively small variance, suggesting range restriction that may lead to nonsignificant effects.…”

Retirement and Volunteering in Germany – Historical Changes and Social Inequalities

“…Second, with latest pension reforms and consequently increasingly complex retirement transitions, people may be too occupied with finding their own way of adjusting to retirement to also start volunteering, although there is little evidence that retirement adjustment has become harder with historical time in Germany (cf. Henning, Johansson et al, 2022; Henning, Segel-Karpas et al, 2022).…”

“…In contrast to hypothesis 4, which assumed that the historical effects were more positive among higher educated individuals, there were no historical differences in either group. This is a positive sign as with pension reforms disadvantaging lower educated retirees (Hofäcker & Radl, 2016), retirement adjustment may become harder for those with lower education (Henning, Johansson, et al, 2022) and therefore also increase pre-existing educational differences. However, only school education, not later degrees were included at all waves.…”

“…The role of historical time has rarely been considered in studies on retirement and volunteering. It has been argued, however, that the face of retirement is changing over the last decades (Henning, Johansson, Lindwall, & Huxhold, 2022; James et al, 2020). In the current study, we investigate the cross-sectional association of retirement and volunteering, over and above age differences.…”

Personality and 10-year personality development among Norwegians in midlife—Do retirement and job type play a role?

“…We use a nonretiring control group to distinguish change across retirement from age-normative change (Schwaba & Bleidorn, 2019). In particular, we aim at filling a gap in the literature by considering that the effects of retirement on one’s life conditions (and consequently on personality) may differ between individuals, depending on their preretirement work life and socioeconomic status (Henning, Johansson, et al, 2022; Wetzel et al, 2016). Therefore, we compare personality development among blue-collar workers and white-collar workers.…”