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Pathways into retirement: Entry or exit?
Author(s) -
Kloep Marion,
Hendry Leo B.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of occupational and organizational psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.257
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 2044-8325
pISSN - 0963-1798
DOI - 10.1348/096317905x68204
Subject(s) - perspective (graphical) , psychology , psychosocial , life span , set (abstract data type) , perception , social psychology , style (visual arts) , life style , qualitative research , focus group , gerontology , developmental psychology , applied psychology , sociology , medicine , social science , archaeology , artificial intelligence , psychiatry , neuroscience , computer science , anthropology , history , programming language
This qualitative interview study set out to gauge older citizens' perceptions of reasons for willingly entering retirement, or, alternatively, resisting it, by examining the retrospective views of 45 adults (aged 62 to 94 years) in Norway who had already crossed the retirement threshold. Interviews were taped, transcribed and analysed (separately) by the two authors. Findings, extrapolated from the interview data, demonstrated an array of interacting factors influencing individual pathways into retirement and adjustments to various retired life‐styles. Furthermore, three broad themes were identified; namely, ‘there is life beyond work’; ‘work as a life‐style'; and ‘there is not much left to live for’ with individually different routes within these. Importantly, it became clear that these pathways were initiated long before retirement. Given the range of influencing factors and of the psychosocial resources shown by the participants, it was proposed that future research should focus more innovatively on interactive, ecological approaches with a longer time‐span perspective.