Comparative Study of the Quality of Adaptation and Satisfaction with Life of Retirees According to Retiring Age

The age of retirement is currently an issue of public concern. Never before have the social and economical costs of retirement given rise to so much debate. Advances in medical care, together with changes in lifestyle and working conditions have considerably increased the lifespan of people in the industrial world. As the population ages, the possibility of retiring early in life has become common practice (Ginn & Arber, 1996). France has been particularly concerned by demographic change and has carried out many political, economic and social reforms, with the aim of increasing the quality of life of its retirees. A wide range of pension schemes have been developed, facilitateing the decision of when to retire. For example, in the 1980s, to facilitate the transition towards retirement, the French government introduced two bills to improve the financial conditions of older working adults. In the last twenty years, the conditions for taking early retirement have been modified in their content as well as in their goals, and early retirement remains a popular option. Currently, the majority of research projects in psychology dealing with retirement focus on the factors accounting for the heterogeneity of behaviour during retirement, without considering the impact of age and maturity/preparedness on how retirees adapt during the transition period. Researchers are generally more interested in identifying the factors which may play a role when deciding when to retire (Feldman, 1994, Henkens, 1999), or in analyzing the decision-making process itself (Schulz, Morton, & Weckerle, 1998). The age factor is nevertheless critical. Retirement remains one of the most important transition periods in personal and family life. It represents a social and an emotional challenge (Lo & Brown, 1999). For some, retirement can be an opportunity to set new goals, to start new activities, and can lead to greater life satisfaction (Calasanti, 1996; Maule, Cliff, & Taylor, 1996). For others, it entails difficulties of adaptation, feelings of distress, and rapid deterioration of physical and psychological health (Bosse, Aldwin, Levenson, & Workman-Daniels, 1990). Although the event itself is inevitable, people apprehend, anticipate and perceive it differently. The meaning of retirement, its impact on life satisfaction, and successful adaptation differ considerably from one individual to another. We hypothesize that the age at which people stop work influences the way they adapt to retirement. This study aimed to improve our understanding of the impact of age on how people adapt to retirement, irrespective of the political reforms affecting their social and economic situation. More specifically, we analyzed how retirees perceived their retiring, and the impact this had on their quality of adaptation and satisfaction with life. While some authors have established a positive link between retirement and life satisfaction (Midanik, Soghikian, Ransom, & Tekawa, 1995), others have suggested that the feeling of well-being decreases in retirement (Elwell & Maltbie-Crannel, 1981). Other studies have found that retirement is seen as a common event with no notable effect on well-being (“the satisfaction with life is stable” Stull, 1988). The aim of the present study was to examine further these hypotheses. It compared the quality of adaptation and satisfaction with life of two groups of adults retiring before and after the age of 60. We investigated whether the two groups shared a similar quality of adaptation and satisfaction with life, and whether they showed similar feelings about the age at which they retired.