The effect of psychosocial self-care education on retirement syndrome in educators: a quasi-experimental study

Introduction and goal:Retirement is one of the life crises, which can cause psychological and social problems in people, and cause incompatibility and symptoms called retirement syndrome. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of psychosocial self-care training program on retirement syndrome in educators as a program to improve and expose retirees to retirement. Materials and methods: In this study, a two-group quasi-experimental method was performed on 64 education retirees in 1398 in Gonabad. After reviewing the entry and exit criteria of the research units (individuals were randomly assigned), they were assigned to two experimental and control groups. Psychosocial self-care training sessions were held once a week for 6 hours for one hour (for) the intervention group. At the beginning and end of these sessions, the retirement syndrome questionnaire was completed by the participants. After data collection, the analysis was performed using SPSS software (version 20) and the significance level was considered less than p <0.05. Results: In this study, 4 main categories regarding retirement syndrome were examined. These categories include; They are feelings of confusion and conflict, feelings of new effort and direction, feelings of old age and emptiness, and feelings of helplessness and failure. According to the results of independent t-test in all areas of retirement syndrome in the two groups before the intervention, no significant difference was observed (p> 0.05) after the intervention according to the results of independent t-test, the average areas of retirement syndrome in the two groups Except for the feeling of aging and idleness, there was a statistically significant difference (p <0.05) and the score of retirement syndrome in the intervention group was lower than the control group. Mean and difference of mean score of retirement syndrome in the two groups after the intervention There was a statistically significant difference between the two groups before and after the intervention(p <0.05). Conclusion:The results of the present study showed that holding face-to-face meetings and conducting psychosocial self-care training on retirement syndrome in retired educators had a positive effect on reducing the symptoms of retirement syndrome. By teaching self-care and learning self-care strategies in old age, we can prepare retirees to cope with or reduce the symptoms of retirement syndrome.