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Does Retirement Change What Individuals Value in Life? Results From a 3-Year Panel Study
[Productive aging. A conceptual framework]

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  • Olga Grünwald
  • Marleen Damman
  • Kène Henkens

Abstract

ObjectivesIn previous research on retirement, what individuals value in life is often assumed to remain stable after the transition into retirement. However, retirement exposes individuals to new social settings and might thus prompt them to reevaluate their life orientations. Quantitative empirical knowledge about this process is limited, though. This study examines the impact of retirement on changes in the perceived importance of self-development, social status, societal contribution, and generativity in older adults’ lives. We draw on the life-course framework to develop hypotheses about which life orientations are more likely to change after retirement and how.MethodsWe analyzed data collected in 2015 and 2018 among 5,034 Dutch individuals aged 60–65 and employed at baseline. Around half had fully retired at follow-up (either voluntarily or involuntarily), and 10% worked after retirement.ResultsConditional change models reveal that voluntary full retirement was linked to statistically significant—but (very) small—decreases in the importance of self-development, social status, societal contribution, and generativity compared to continuous career work. Differences in changes of life orientations between retirement processes (i.e., postretirement work, involuntary full retirement) were also small.DiscussionThe findings point to relatively high levels of continuity during the transition from career employment to retirement, given the small effect sizes observed. The notion that after retirement, individuals will reevaluate what they value in life—as expected in light of the exposure-based mechanism from the life-course literature—seems to be less pronounced than initially expected.

Suggested Citation

  • Olga Grünwald & Marleen Damman & Kène Henkens, 2022. "Does Retirement Change What Individuals Value in Life? Results From a 3-Year Panel Study [Productive aging. A conceptual framework]," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 77(9), pages 1699-1709.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:77:y:2022:i:9:p:1699-1709.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbac014
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Marleen Damman & Kène Henkens & Matthijs Kalmijn, 2013. "Late-Career Work Disengagement: The Role of Proximity to Retirement and Career Experiences," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 68(3), pages 455-463.
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    Cited by:

    1. Karl Spiteri & John Xerri de Caro & Kate Grafton & Bob Laventure & David R. Broom, 2022. "Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour with Retirement in Maltese Civil Servants: A Dialectical Mixed-Method Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-29, November.

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