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Adjustment to Retirement: What We Know and What We Need to Know

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2008

V. A. Braithwaite  and
D. M. Gibson
V. A. Braithwaite
Affiliation:
NH & MRC Social Psychiatry Research Unit, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia.
D. M. Gibson
Affiliation:
School of Humanities, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia..
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Abstract

Difficulty in adjusting to retirement has consistently emerged as a problem for approximately a third of retirees. A body of research has converged on a description of the poor adjuster as one in poor health, with inadequate income, a negative pre-retirement attitude, but with an increased likelihood of adaptation over time. Findings relating to other factors such as socio-economic status, occupation, activity, career fulfilment, job satisfaction and work commitment are far less conclusive, with interpretation hampered by a failure to control for the more well established correlates of retirement adjustment. This paper reviews the empirical work in this field, evaluates the goal hierarchy model and the political economy of old age literature as bases for explaining differences in retirement adjustment, and proposes a theoretical framework for future research which brings these two perspectives together.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , March 1987 , pp. 1 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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NOTES

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