Assessing retirement satisfaction and perceptions of retirement experiences.

A 2-part investigation developed a measure of retirement as a life transition. Study 1 generated items from interviews with retirees (n?=?40) and service providers. Item analysis with recent retirees (n?=?86) produced a 51-item Retirement Satisfaction Inventory assessing 6 areas: preretirement work functioning, adjustment and change, reasons for retirement, satisfaction with life in retirement, current sources of enjoyment, and leisure and physical activities. Study 2 examined a heterogeneous sample of men (n?=?159) and women (n?=?243) retirees. Factor analyses produced internally consistent subscales. Moderate, but acceptable, test–retest reliability was demonstrated. Satisfaction scores correlated with concurrent measures and, together with pre- and postretirement experiences, discriminated 4 groups of voluntary and involuntary retirees. Few effects related to gender, SES, length of retirement, and part-time employment were found. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preretirement planning of female registered nurses

Knowledge of preretirement planning among women has not been a major focal point for researchers. The purpose of this study was to test a model for understanding preretirement planning among working women and to describe and explain preretirement health and financial plans. A multivariate method of analysis was used with a sample of 145 working female registered nurses, 40 years of age or older, from a major health sciences institution. Data were collected with a mailed questionnaire that measured knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes of women regarding health and financial preretirement planning. The results of this study indicated that formal and informal methods of planning for retirement were limited. Knowledge of health maintenance issues and economic issues were found to be helpful in making plans for the retirement years. This study identifies strengths and weaknesses in the preretirement planning process of working women and contributes to the expansion of knowledge to reduce problems during retirement.     

Psychological well-being in retirement: The effects of personal and gendered contextual resources.

Although prior research points to the gendered nature of work and private routines, surprisingly few studies have explored the influence of gender on the sources of psychological well-being in retirement. Drawing on resource theories and theories on the gendered division of labor, this study examines how preretirement resources relate to retirees' psychological well-being by using data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. It is hypothesized that possessing key resources prior to retirement as well as losing or gaining resources in the transition to retirement influence retirees' well-being and that these effects are partially conditioned by gender. Results indicate that preretirement physical health, tenacity in goal pursuit, and flexibility in goal adjustment are beneficial for men's and women's well-being alike. By contrast, financial assets and job dissatisfaction are more strongly related to men's psychological well-being in retirement and preretirement social contacts to that of women. Thus, the study underscores the importance of considering gendered resources in retirement research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relation of life goals at age 70 to activity participation and health and psychological well-being among Terman's gifted men and women.

In this study I investigated the relation of life goals to activity participation and health and psychological well-being for men and women in Terman's Study of the Gifted. The subjects were between the ages of 65 and 75 years (M?=?70.2 years) when they responded to a mail-out survey in 1982. The study included three goals scales—Autonomy, Involvement, and Achievement Motivation—as well as measures of activity participation and health and psychological well-being. Multiple regression analyses in which the three goals scales were used to predict health and psychological well-being were both significant. Path analyses demonstrated both a direct and an indirect contribution, through activity participation, of life goals to health and well-being. In most cases, the indirect effect of life goals on health and well-being accounted for more than one half of the total effect. Implications of the results for life satisfaction in aging are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intervention targets for reducing preretirement anxiety and depression.

Self-efficacy, attitudes, knowledge, planfulness, job commitment, and social support were studied as predictors of anxiety and depression about retirement. R. C. Atchley's (1976) theory of near and remote phases of preretirement was also examined. The results indicate that the best predictors of preretirement worry were a low sense of self-efficacy and low degree of planfulness, both significant factors in addition to concerns about money or health. Analyses comparing those who were currently eligible for retirement with those who were 2–3 years away from retirement yielded no significant differences. Implications for the timing and content of preretirement counseling interventions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adjustment to and satisfaction with retirement: Two of a kind?

Multiactor panel data on 778 Dutch employees were used to examine adjustment to and satisfaction with retirement. Regression analyses revealed that adjustment and satisfaction are related, but not identical. Adjustment problems arise from preretirement anxiety about the social consequences of retirement and from a lack of control over the decision. Retirement satisfaction is primarily related to the individual's access to key resources: finances, health, and the marital relationship. The study shows that the retirement transition is multidimensional. The transition involves two developmental challenges: adjustment to the loss of the work role and the social ties of work, and the development of a satisfactory postretirement lifestyle. Making a distinction between these two aspects of the retirement experience is important for a better understanding of the psychological process following retirement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender and adult roles: Role commitment of women and men in a job-family trade-off context.

The dimensionality that underlies the preferences of female (n?=?87) and male (n?=?31) college students for combining work and parent roles was investigated using conjoint measurement techniques. Both groups construed the role trade-offs and intensity of involvement with these roles differently as they applied to women and men. Results for female roles confirm and extend L. C. Coombs's (1979) findings—both women and men perceived a job–child trade-off dimension and a total involvement (percentage of time devoted to job and number of children desired) dimension for women. Results differed for male roles. Students perceived these life roles to be independent, rather than contingent, choices for men. The trade-off context is important for assessment and counseling. The perceived independence of these roles for men poses a dilemma regarding counseling practice for both sexes: whether to confirm sex role perceptions or explore discrepancies in expectations and equity implications. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Standardization of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Revised for persons 75 years and older.

This project expanded the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Revised (WAIS—R) normative tables for the Verbal, Performance, and Full Scale IQs and age-corrected subtest scores to persons aged 75 yrs and older. A sample of 130 normal volunteers was selected according to 1983 census data on the variables of age, education, sex, and race. Means for age and education were 81.24 yrs (SD?=?5.24) and 9.54 yrs (SD?=?2.50). There were 74 White women, 42 White men, 9 Black women, and 5 Black men. Ss lived in the states of Kansas (60.7%), Missouri (34.6%), and Iowa (4.6%), with 90% residing in urban centers and 10% in rural communities. All Ss were administered a complete WAIS—R by trained examiners. On the basis of the raw scores, Verbal, Performance, and Full Scale IQ conversion tables were developed separately for persons 75–79 yrs of age (n?=?60) and aged 80 yrs and older (n?=?70). Conversion tables (M?=?10; SD?=?3) for age-corrected scaled scores were also developed for both age groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marital satisfaction, recovery from work, and diurnal cortisol among men and women.

Design: Multilevel modeling was used to model relationships between salivary cortisol, daily diary ratings of work experiences, and Marital Adjustment Test scores (Locke & Wallace, 1959), in a sample of 60 adults who sampled saliva 4 times per day over 3 days. Results: Among women but not men, marital satisfaction was significantly associated with a stronger basal cortisol cycle, with higher morning values and a steeper decline across the day. For women but not men, marital satisfaction moderated the within-subjects association between afternoon and evening cortisol level, such that marital quality appeared to bolster women's physiological recovery from work. For both men and women, evening cortisol was lower than usual on higher-workload days, and marital satisfaction augmented this association among women. Men showed higher evening cortisol after more distressing social experiences at work, an association that was strongest among men with higher marital satisfaction. Conclusion: This work has implications for the study of physiological recovery from work, and also suggests a pathway by which marital satisfaction influences allostatic load and physical health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Extending the boundaries of occupational health psychology: State-of-the-art reviews: II.

The nature of work changes over the life course for both men and women, yet the substance and meaning of both paid and unpaid activities varies considerably by gender. The articles in this special section (see records 28794, -002, and -003) extend the study of work and health by applying an ecology of the life course perspective to retirement, by extending the definition of work to include unpaid activity outside formal employment, and by examining the elements of causal analysis in longitudinal studies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Leisure attributes and retirement satisfaction.

301 South Australian retirees completed an interview/questionnaire regarding their regular leisure activities and retirement satisfaction. Leisure activities were reliably rated on the attributes of influence, variety, skill utilization, and interaction. Retirement satisfaction was measured along factors of activities, people, health, finances, and life satisfaction. Results generally do not support the hypothesis that attributes of work that are associated with job satisfaction would also be the attributes of leisure that are associated with retirement satisfaction. Following the use of decomposition procedures, it was found that the number of leisure activities and leisure interaction, together with health and financial satisfaction, were significant predictors of satisfaction with retirement activities. Of these variables, only satisfaction with retirement activities was a significant predictor of life satisfaction. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sexual self-schema and sexual morbidity among gynecologic cancer survivors.

Longitudinal research indicates that approximately 50% of women treated for gynecologic cancer have sexual dysfunctions as they recover and become cancer survivors. This outcome occurs in the context of satisfactory quality of life in other domains. This study, comparing gynecologic cancer survivors (n?=?61) and gynecologically healthy women (n?=?74), documents the reliability of the latter observations with measures of quality of life (general, depressive symptoms, social contacts, and stress), sexual functioning, and health. Of added importance are analyses focused on variables that may predict risk for sexual morbidity. Specifically, sexual self-schema is tested as an important, sexually relevant individual difference. In regression analyses that controlled for estimates of precancer sexual behavior (intercourse frequency), extent of disease–treatment, and menopausal symptoms, sexual self-schema accounted for significant variance in predicting current sexual behavior and responsiveness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological predictors of good health in three longitudinal samples of educated midlife women.

Concurrent and longitudinal associations between cognitive and affective personality variables—intellectual efficiency (IE), anxiety, and hostility—and observer ratings of physical health were examined in 3 longitudinal samples of women: Mills Longitudinal Study (n?=?101); Radcliffe Study (RS, n?=?118); and University of California, San Francisco Study (n?=?44). Observer ratings of health were based on participants' reports of health problems. The California Psychological Inventory (H. G. Gough, 1996) IE, Hostility, and Anxiety Scales were used in all studies at Times 1 and 2, except in RS, when at Time 1 the Zung Anxiety (W. K. Zung, 1971) and the Profile of Mood States (D. M. McNair, M. Lorr, & L. F. Droppleman, 1971) Hostility Scales were used. In the majority of analyses, EE was positively associated with good health, and Anxiety and Hostility were negatively associated with health. IE was the strongest independent predictor of health, indicating that cognitive characteristics may have an important role in health and should be examined further. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social support and the well-being of persons with spinal cord injury living in the community.

100 men and 40 women (all aged 19–77 yrs) with spinal cord injury completed a social support questionnaire, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, the Life Satisfaction Index Form A, and a single-item self-assessment of health status. A physician assessed the presence or absence of urinary tract infection from laboratory findings and determined the absence, presence, and severity of pressure ulcers from physical examination. Amount of social support was positively related to life satisfaction and physical well-being. Satisfaction with one's support network was associated negatively with depressive symptomatology and positively with life satisfaction. There were significant differences in the correlations between life satisfaction and total social support for men and women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development and validation of the Multidimensional Health Profile. Part I: Psychosocial functioning.

This article describes the development and preliminary validation of the Multidimensional Health Profile, Part I: Psychosocial Functioning (MHP-P), a self-report screening instrument for use in mental health and primary care settings. The MHP-P assesses mental health, life stress, coping skills, and social resources. In Study 1, retest reliability, validity, social desirability response bias, and factor structure were examined in a national sample of men and women (N?=?673). In Study 2, the effect of time frame on the retest reliability of the mental health scales was examined in a sample of male and female college students (N?=?147). A national sample of men and women (N?=?2,411) provided data for additional confirmatory factor analyses and norm development in Study 3. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Life satisfaction and its related factors among institutionalized patients at a Hansen's disease sanatorium

We conducted a questionnaire survey on life styles and health status for 293 patients with Hansen's disease. They were admitted to the wards for disabled and physically able patients of Ohshima Seishoen, in Kagawa prefecture, in 1991. This institution is one of Japan's national leprosy sanitarians. We measured patients' life satisfaction with the Delighted-Terrible Scale. In this report, the distribution of life satisfaction and its associated factors were examined for 210(71.7%) respondents. Factors examined were length of treatment, physical health, and social aspects of life at the sanatorium. The major findings were as follows; 1. The patients aged under 60 had lower proportions of being satisfied with life than those aged 60 or older. The proportions of life satisfaction of the 40-59 age group were 17% for men and 22% for women, while for the 60 or older age groups were 33-44% for men and 41-45% for women. The proportions of life satisfaction in the 60 or older age groups were lower than those of community dwelling elderly persons. 2. We examined factors associated with life satisfaction for the respondents aged 60 or older. Dependence on activities of daily living (ADL) was associated with life satisfaction in some ADL items. Care and aid provided by the staff of the sanatorium may modify the relationship between ADL impairment and life satisfaction. For social aspects of life at the sanatorium, both having networks with family members and having resources other than family were associated with life satisfaction. Going out and positively spending their daily lives were associated with life satisfaction, too. These associations were significant for men. Similar patterns of association were observed for women, but were insignificant. This finding suggests that it is important for the health and medical care staff to pay attention to the social aspects of the life of elderly patients with Hansen's disease.     

Support for affirmative action, justice perceptions, and work attitudes: A study of gender and racial–ethnic group differences.

Do gender and race-ethnicity moderate people's reactions to perceptions that their organization supports affirmative action/equal opportunity (AA/EO)? This study compared relationships between perceptions of support for AA/EO, distributive and procedural justice, career development opportunities, and work attitudes in 4 groups of federal employees: White men (n?=?4,919), White women (n?=?1,622), Blacks/Hispanics (n?=?492), and Asians (n?=?195). Surprisingly, White men did not associate support for AA/EO with a loss in career development opportunities, organizational injustice, or negative work attitudes. For women and racial-ethnic minorities, support for AA/EO was positively linked to perceptions of organizational justice and increased career development opportunities. As predicted, Blacks/Hispanics had more positive reactions than other employee groups. We conclude that support for AA/EO is generally viewed as fair and has positive attitudinal consequences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)