Impact of a personal goals management program on the subjective well-being of young retirees

A personal goal-based intervention was offered to retired people aged 50 to 65 years with the objective of increasing their subjective wellbeing. The program aimed to help the participants set, plan, and pursue their personal goals through a learning process based on literature on goal intervention. At the end of the program, the experimental group (N = 117) had improved significantly more than the control group (N = 177) on the majority of the goal and subjective well-being indicators, and this gain was maintained six months later. The enhanced well-being observed in the participants after the intervention stemmed from the mediating effect of the goals and was thus due to the greater focus on goals. Some ideas to make the program more effective are discussed. © 2007 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.