Retirement as a Psychosocial Transition: Process of Adaptation to Change

Abstract

This study seeks to verify if the work-to-retirement process meets the requirements inherent to the Psychosocial Transitions Model. Quantitative and qualitative evaluations are used to verify if pre-, intra-, and post-retirement periods are different from one another when the individual's internal organization is examined. The experimental group (n = 17, age = 65) takes IPAT, LSI-A, and clinical interviews evaluations at pre-, intra-, and post-retirement measurement times. The control group (n = 22, age = 65), used to verify the test-retest effect, takes these evaluations only at the post-retirement session. Variance analysis (ANOVA) show, at a quantitative level that the retirement transition triggers observable changes in anxiety levels. A posteriori analysis (HELMERT) shows that these operate significantly between the pre- and intra-retirement times. The content analysis of interviews shows, at a qualitative level, observable changes in pre-post-retirement preoccupations. These include death thoughts.

Five-factor model personality traits and the retirement transition: Longitudinal and cross-sectional associations.

“…Retirement is a major normative life transition (Atchley, 1976; Theriault, 1994) which profoundly affects patterns of everyday activities and social network composition (e.g., Bossé, Aldwin, Levenson, Workman-Daniels, & Ekerdt, 1990; Mor-Barak, Scharlach, Birba, & Sokolov, 1992; Kim & Moen, 2002). Research on interindividual differences in retirement outcomes (e.g., Pinquart & Schindler, 2007; van Solinge & Henkens, 2007; 2008) has focused on sociodemographic factors (e.g., Wu, Tang, & Yan, 2005), physical health (e.g., Herzog, House, & Morgan, 1991; Wu et al, 2005), and subjective well-being (e.g., Pinquart & Schindler, 2007).…”

Strategies of Awareness of the Retirement in Employees of a Mexican Company

“…Coincidences were found with some authors [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] in that at least one out of three employees knew nothing about retirement and without I must learn to live alone to get to know myself, find the meaning of my life, be coherent and achieve happiness.…”

“…as a topic had no major importance because life expectancy was short; nevertheless, increasingly more people will retire and live for many more [1] At least one out or every three of these people will have increased anxiety and stress levels, experience difficulties in adapting to a new role and may suffer from the retirement syndrome with physical, psychological and social manifestations, including insomnia, digestive disorders, anxiety, pessimism, loss of relationships and loneliness [2] [3] [4] [5] [6].…”

Determinants of successful retirement in a Portuguese population

“…The transition from active to retired life involves working through changes, processes of decisionmaking and the construction of a new personal identity. 3 As each individual progresses through the life-cycle, developmental tasks arise involving transitions, confrontations and new problems, which demand adequate adaptive responses. These necessarily emerge from the ongoing influence on the individual of a great range of psychosocial elements, such as the economic and socio-historical background, 4 the social and cultural context, 5 the individual's personal configuration of abilities, desires and aspirations, 6,7 and factors such as gender 8 or marital status.…”