Narratives and Experience in an Occupational Transition: A Longitudinal Study of the Retirement Process

Abstract

This article presents the results from a longitudinal study of retirement. Data were collected through interviews with 12 Swedish participants over a 7-year period, beginning when they were still working and continuing through their early years of retirement. The findings show that the participants' narrative anticipations of retirement interacted with the events of ongoing life. Sometimes these events influenced the outcomes of the retirement process unpredictably. Consequently, retirement was often full of surprises and temporary periods of turbulence. Although some participants managed a transition into a satisfying pattern of retirement, others found it an ongoing process of frustration and dissatisfaction. Evidence from this longitudinal study indicates that a special type of occupation--engaging occupation with six constituents--was an important determinant of retirement satisfaction. This key finding is discussed with regard to its implications for theory development as well as its practical implications related to the importance of differentiating occupations and attending to the interaction between internal motivation and external expectations in the occupational pattern.

Navigating the occupational transition of dropping out of school: Anchoring occupations and champions as facilitators

“…Resources available in the context appear to significantly influence the kinds of occupational repertoires that can emerge for school dropouts 21 . This was also evident when considering the previous studies done on the occupational transition of retirement 8,[14][15][16][17] . The studies presented in this review show that the kind of occupational engagement leading up to dropout and afterwards is characterised by risk.…”

“…These elements included that they were infused with positive meaning, were analogous to work and that they were intense, requiring regular engagement over a lengthy period of time 8 . Johnson, Josephsson and Kielhofner 14 highlighted that engaging occupations 'sometimes reaffirmed a person's worth or identity. We can thus see that there are close parallels between these descriptions of engaging occupations and that of anchoring occupations in Gavin and Ralphi's life stories.…”

“…Occupational transition is a recently developed concept that explains how people negotiate life changes. The literature on occupational transitions reveals that, with respect to major changes to individuals' occupational repertoires, authors have discussed transitions of homelessness and addiction 9 , forced migration 10 , immigration 11,12 , driving cessation 13 and retirement 8,[14][15][16][17] . A review of these studies indicated that:…”

Psychometric testing of a self-report measure of engagement in productive occupations

“…Occupational engagement as a phenomenon is said to capture the clients" connection to the occupations and their investments in them (Edgelow & Krupa, 2011) and it has been described as the ability to perform occupations within a certain context, the range and variety of meaningful occupations, and the routines that a person has (Bejerholm & Eklund, 2007;Edgelow & Krupa, 2011). Jonsson, Josephsson, and Kielhofner (2001) argued that the concept of occupational engagement can be vital when analyzing a client"s occupational pattern in order to guide clients when facing occupational transition, such as between work and retirement. The Canadian Model of Occupational Performance and Engagement (CMOP-E) (Townsend & Polatajko, 2007) has particularly acknowledged the importance of occupational engagement.…”

Developing a descriptive framework for “occupational engagement”

“…Yerxa, 1980), whilst others discuss it as a construct (e.g. Jonsson, Josephsson & Kielhofner, 2001). …”