Psychosocial profiles of early retirees based on experiences during post-working life transition and adjustment to retirement

Abstract

Early retirement is a kind of occupational withdrawal that affects a heterogeneous group of workers. In order to identify types of retirees with similarities in their way of exiting from working life, satisfaction with post-working life and socio-demographic characteristics, we administered an adaption of the Retirement Satisfaction Inventory (Floyd et al., 1992) to a sample of 638 Spanish early retirees. Data using cluster analysis showed two major groups of retirees: workers who desired to accept the offer of early retirement and non-volunteers. Regarding the first group, the results show that pursuing personal interests during post-working life motivates their organizational exit. They reported less pressure from their employers during the exit process, and experienced high levels of freedom and control of their lives after leaving work. However, non-volunteer retirees stated that pressure from their employers was the reason for their early retirement. Within this group, two subgroups can be identified as a function of their educational level and professional status. The description of the experience of transition to retirement and satisfaction with post-working life is an approach aimed to understand a complex and heterogeneous experience.

Characterising Spanish retirees enrolled in university programs: four differentiated profiles

“…The first cluster or involuntary retirees is distinguished by workers who experienced organizational pressure to abandon work, who had health problems during the retire-ment process and who, for the most part, have no formal education. These results are in line with those from several studies, which have identified working conditions and health problems as the variables which have the greatest impact on the retirement decision-making process (Fernández, Alcover & Crego, 2013) In the second cluster, non-voluntary retirees with high resilience are retirees with little interest in leaving the workforce, low levels of stress and who experienced organizational pressure to retire but showed high resilience during the process. The majority was former private sector workers with primary and secondary education and who are, mostly, single.…”

“…The aim of this study was to identify possible groups of retirees with common traits in terms of sociodemographic features, characteristics of the retirement process, perceived social support and resilience. The results obtained confirm the existence of four groups or profiles which are different from one another but which present internal homogeneity in terms of the variables included in the model (Fernández, Alcover & Crego, 2013). We may label these four groups as involuntary retirees, non-voluntary retirees with high resilience, voluntary with high education and high perceived social support from friends and finally voluntary retirees with low level of education and high satisfaction with their family (Fernández, Crego & Alcover, 2013).…”

“…As observed in this paper, various studies have identified two typologies of retirees according to the nature of their decision to leave work: those who made the decision to retire voluntarily and those who made it involuntarily (Van Solinge & Henkens, 2014;Fernández, Alcover & Crego, 2013). In the sample of Spanish retirees, the first two clusters contain retirees who retired as a result of an involuntary process and the third and fourth clusters as a consequence of a voluntary process.…”

Psychometric properties and factor structure of the satisfaction with life scale in an elderly portuguese students sample.

“…In particular, several researchers (Börsch-Supan & Jürges, 2005;Fernández, Alcover de la Hera, & Crego, 2012;Kim & Feldman, 2000) have identified a number of criteria associated with elderly and retired people and reported their influence on satisfaction with life in the elderly during the post work period; for instance, financial situation, levels of socialization, social support, personality traits, flexibility, the use of coping strategies or participation in educational programmes as a preventive measure (Fernández et al, 2012;NavarroPardo et al, 2015). These factors have a strong influence on subjective well-being, and this is particularly so among the elderly because they have to adjust their activities, thoughts and emotions to obtain high levels of satisfaction during this period (post-working life).…”

Increasing the Pensionable Age: What Changes Are OECD Countries Making? What Considerations Are Driving Policy?

“…A procedures distinction is made between workers that retire voluntarily, usually due to a strong preference for retirement, and involuntary retirees, who are forced to retire by such factors as health problems, weak employment conditions, and organizational pressures that induce them to leave their jobs [45].…”