Subjective well-being across the retirement transition—Historical differences and the role of perceived control.

Abstract

Given substantial cohort differences in psychosocial functioning, for example in perceived control, and ongoing pension reforms, the context of retirement has changed over the last decades. However, there is limited research on the consequences of such developments on historical differences in subjective well-being in the retirement transition. In the present study, we investigated historical differences in change in life satisfaction and positive affect across the retirement transition. We further included perceived control as a predictor of change in well-being. Analyses were based on sub-samples of retirees among three nationally representative samples of the German Ageing Survey (1996;2002; 2008) and their respective follow-ups 6 years later. Results showed historical improvements in preretirement positive affect (i.e., later samples had higher pre-retirement levels). Contrastingly, earlier samples showed a larger increase in positive affect across the retirement transition compared to later samples. No historical differences were found in life satisfaction. Perceived control showed no historical improvement and did not seem to contribute to historical differences in subjective well-being. Nevertheless, we found that the association of perceived control and positive affect increased over historical time. The results showed that the historical context seems to play a role in the experience of retirement, and that it is helpful to distinguish between cognitive-evaluative and affective components of well-being.

A longitudinal examination of the role of social identity in supporting health and well-being in retirement.

“…Much of the research on this topic has considered individual-level factors that contribute to the quality of adjustment, as indexed by a wide range of measures that include general health and well-being, the resources that a person can access (e.g., financial, physical, emotional, social), and specific work exit conditions (e.g., timing of retirement, extent of retirement planning). Increasingly researchers are emphasizing the importance of recognizing the wider contexts (e.g., temporal, cultural, historical) that influence these factors (e.g., Henning et al, 2022). Nevertheless, among the many predictors of adjustment that have been examined over the years, several have consistently emerged as contributing to the quality of a person’s retirement—notably their health status, demographic factors (age, gender, income), work and exit conditions (job stressors, engagement in bridge work, planning, and readiness for retirement), marital status, and wider social engagement (e.g., Dingemans & Henkens, 2014; Pinquart & Schindler, 2007; Potočnik & Sonnentag, 2013; Reitzes & Mutran, 2004; van Solinge & Henkens, 2008; Wang, 2007).…”

Cohort differences in trajectories of life satisfaction among Japanese older adults.

“…However, we did not have specific hypotheses in advance. This was because empirical evidence for history-graded differences in associations between resources and well-being remains sparse despite a few studies (Henning et al, 2022; Kobayashi et al, 2015), indicating that the associations of psychological and social resources with late-life well-being vary across cohorts.…”

Cohort Differences in Depressive Symptoms and Life Satisfaction in 75- and 80-Year-Olds: A Comparison of Two Cohorts 28 Years Apart

“…Research results on cohort differences in mental wellbeing have been inconsistent due to, for example, differences in the assessed dimension of mental well-being, participants' age, and the time between cohorts. Positive secular changes have been found for positive affect among U.S. adults (Sutin et al, 2013), German older adults (Gerstorf et al, 2015), and German adults in retirement transition (Henning et al, 2022), and general mental well-being in Finnish older adults ( Öhman et al, 2022). However, no cohort differences have been found for life satisfaction (Henning et al, 2022;Jivraj et al, 2014) and depressed affect (Sutin et al, 2013).…”

“…Positive secular changes have been found for positive affect among U.S. adults (Sutin et al, 2013), German older adults (Gerstorf et al, 2015), and German adults in retirement transition (Henning et al, 2022), and general mental well-being in Finnish older adults ( Öhman et al, 2022). However, no cohort differences have been found for life satisfaction (Henning et al, 2022;Jivraj et al, 2014) and depressed affect (Sutin et al, 2013). The secular change in depression seems to be even the opposite as the prevalence of both diagnosed depression and depressive symptoms has increased among middle-aged adults in various countries (Abrams & Mehta, 2019;Bishop et al, 2022;Jeuring et al, 2018;Spiers et al, 2012).…”