Does transition to retirement increase frequence of volunteering: Findings from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe

Objectives Several studies have shown that retired older adults volunteer more than their working counterparts. However, there is a lack of research detecting whether the transition to retirement increases the frequency of volunteering over time and the extent to which this potential effect of retirement varies between sociodemographic groups.Methods We used seven waves of data from the longitudinal Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, collected between 2011 and 2018 from 19 countries. Within-person (or panel fixed-effect) regression models, which considered individual variations and person-specific changes over time, were conducted.Results Transition to retirement over time was associated with an increased frequency of volunteering among older Europeans. In addition, transition to retirement was more strongly associated with volunteering in countries with higher overall rates of volunteering, among more highly educated individuals, and among more religious people.Discussion Our findings supported the impact of time substitution and the centrality of social norms in shaping individual behavior. However, we were unable to find support for an influence of social tie replacement. Overall, transition to retirement tends to open up new ways to organize everyday life and increases the time spent volunteering among older Europeans.

Resonant Retiring? Experiences of Resonance in the Transition to Retirement

In the process of life course transitions, relations between the self and the world transform, which can according to Hartmut Rosa be framed as resonance. This article focuses on the retirement transition and thus on the exit from gainful employment as one of the central spheres of our world relationship in late modernity. It raises the following questions: How do experiences of resonance change in the course of the retirement transition? Does the loss of gainful employment lead to disruptions or even the absence of resonance in terms of alienation? And which role do dimensions of social inequality, such as gender, income, education or mental health status play for resonance transformations in the transition to retirement? In terms of a reflexive mixed-methods design, this article combines quantitative panel data from the German Ageing Survey (2008–17) with a qualitative longitudinal study from the project “Doing Retiring” (2017–21). Our results show that the transition from work to retirement entails a specific “resonance choreography” that comprises a phase of disaffection (lack of resonance) at the end of one’s working life followed by a liminal phase in which people search for intensified experiences of resonance. We outline practices in which transitioning subjects seek out resonance, and the experiences they make within this process according to their social positions. We thereby find that the desire for resonance tends to be beyond intentional resonance management which manifests in products and services like coaching or wellness. In our conclusions, we discuss how resonance theory and retirement research/life course research can be fruitfully combined, but also highlight the methodological challenges the operationalization of resonance entails.

Does Transition to Retirement Promote Grandchild Care? Evidence From Europe

Evolutionary theory posits that grandparents can increase their inclusive fitness by investing in their grandchildren. This study explored whether the transition to retirement affected the amount of grandchild care that European grandparents provided to their descendants. Data from five waves of the longitudinal Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe collected between 2004 and 2015 from 15 countries were used. We executed within-person (or fixed-effect) regression models, which considered individual variations and person-specific changes over time. It was detected that transition to retirement was associated with increased grandchild care among both grandmothers and grandfathers. However, the effect of retirement was stronger for grandfathers than for grandmothers. Moreover, transition to retirement was associated with increased grandchild care among both maternal and paternal grandparents, but there was no significant difference between lineages in the magnitude of the effect of transition to retirement on grandchild care. In public debate retirees are often considered a burden to society but the present study indicated that when grandparents retire, their investment in grandchildren increased. The findings are discussed with reference to key evolutionary theories that consider older adults' tendency to invest time and resources in their grandchildren.

User Requirements Analysis of an Embodied Conversational Agent for Coaching Older Adults to Choose Active and Healthy Ageing Behaviors during the Transition to Retirement: A Cross-National User Centered Design Study

Background: Retirement is recognized as a factor influencing the ageing process. Today, virtual health coaching systems can play a pivotal role in supporting older adults’ active and healthy ageing. This study wants to answer two research questions: (1) What are the user requirements of a virtual coach (VC) based on an Embodied Conversational Agent (ECA) for motivating older adults in transition to retirement to adopt a healthy lifestyle? (2) How could a VC address the active and healthy ageing dimensions, even during COVID-19 times? Methods: Two-wave focus-groups with 60 end-users aged 55 and over and 27 follow-up telephone interviews were carried out in Austria, Italy and the Netherlands in 2019–2020. Qualitative data were analysed by way of framework analysis. Results: End-users suggest the VC should motivate older workers and retirees to practice physical activity, maintain social contacts and emotional well-being. The ECA should be reactive, customizable, expressive, sympathetic, not directive nor patronizing, with a pleasant and motivating language. The COVID-19 outbreak increased the users’ need for functions boosting community relationships and promoting emotional well-being. Conclusions: the VC can address the active and healthy ageing paradigm by increasing the chances of doing low-cost healthy activities at any time and in any place.

Transition to retirement impact on health and lifestyle habits: analysis from a nationwide Italian cohort

Background Retirement is a life-course transition likely to affect, through different mechanisms, behavioural risk factors’ patterns and, ultimately, health outcomes. We assessed the impact of transitioning to retirement on lifestyle habits and perceived health status in a nationwide cohort of Italian adults. Methods We analysed data from a large cohort of Italian adults aged 55–70, derived from linking six waves of the Participation, Labour, Unemployment Survey (PLUS), a national survey representative of the Italian workforce population, conducted between 2010 and 2018. We estimated relative-risk ratios (RRR) of transition to retirement and their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for selected behavioural risk factors and health outcomes using multivariable logistic regression models. We used propensity score matching (PSM) to account for potential confounders. Results We included 5169 subjects in the study population, of which 1653 retired between 2010 and 2018 (exposed, 32%). Transition to retirement was associated with a 36% increased probability of practising sports (RRR 1.36, 95% CI 1.12–1.64). No statistically significant changes were reported for smoking habit (current smoker RRR: 1.18, 95% CI 0.94–1.46) and BMI (overweight/obese RRR: 0.96, 95% CI 0.81–1.15). Overall, retiring was associated with improved self-rated health status (RRR 1.26, 95% CI 1.02–1.58). Conclusion Individual data-linkage of multiple waves of the PLUS can offer great insight to inform healthy ageing policies in Italy and Europe. Transition to retirement has an independent effect on perceived health status, physical activity and selected behavioural risk factors. It should be identified as a target moment for preventive interventions, with particular reference to primary prevention so as to promote health and wellbeing in older ages.

Individual socioeconomic and neighborhood factors predict changes in sports activity during the transition to retirement

Background There are substantial socioeconomic status (SES) differences in sports activity (SA) during the transition to retirement. In line with social-ecological models, the aim of this longitudinal study was to examine the association of perceptions of social and physical neighborhood factors with changes in SA across the retirement transition and to examine potential interactions with SES factors. Methods Data from 6 waves of the German Ageing Survey (DEAS) provided 710 participants (at baseline: mean age 61.1, 52.9% of men) who retired between baseline (1996, 2002, 2008, 2011) and their 6-year follow-up assessment. Associations between changes in SA (increases and decreases compared to retaining) and individual SES and neighborhood factors were estimated using multinomial logistic regression analysis. Results Increases were observed in 18.45% of participants, decreases in 10%. Occupational prestige was a risk factor for decreases, education a resource for increases in SA. Interactions between household income and several neighborhood factors were observed. Conclusions In line with social-ecological models, individual, neighborhood factors and interacting associations were found. In particular safety perceptions could be a resource for promotion SA in older adults who experience disadvantage.

Adjustment of Couples to the Transition to Retirement: The Interplay of Intra- and Interpersonal Emotion Regulation in Daily Life

Background: Retirement is a central transition in late adulthood and requires adjustment. These processes not only affect the retired individuals but also their romantic partners. The aim of this study is to investigate the interplay of intrapersonal emotion regulation (rumination) with interpersonal regulation processes (disclosure quality). Furthermore, the associations of daily retirement-related disclosure with adjustment symptoms in disclosing and the listening partner will be investigated. It is expected that the effects of disclosure alter after providing the couples with a self-applied solitary written disclosure task in order to support their intrapersonal emotion regulation.Methods: In this dyadic online-diary study, 45 couples (N = 45) with one partner perceiving the adjustment to a recent retirement as challenging reported rumination, perceived disclosure quality (repetitive, focused on negative content, hard to follow, disclosing partner open for common/authentic), retirement-related disclosure, and ICD-11 adjustment symptoms preoccupation and failure to adapt were assessed at the end of the day over 14 days. In the middle of this assessment period, couples performed a modified online-expressive writing about their thoughts and feelings regarding the transition to retirement.Results: The double-intercept multilevel Actor–Partner Interdependence Models (APIM) reveal that on days with more daily rumination, the spouse perceived that disclosure of the retiree is more difficult to follow, more negative, and repetitive. In contrast, the retiree perceived less authenticity and openness to comments during disclosure on days when the spouse reports more rumination. Retirement-related disclosure showed no within-couple association with failure to adapt but actor effects on preoccupation. Moreover, a partner effect of disclosure of the retirees on the preoccupation of spouses could be observed. This contagious effect of the retiree disclosure, however, disappeared during the week after writing.Conclusion: Our results support the notion that disclosure processes are altered during maladaptive intrapersonal emotion regulation processes. This in turn seems to lead to less effective interpersonal regulation and contagious spilling over of symptoms.Supporting intrapersonal emotion regulation seems to have the potential to allow more favorable interpersonal regulation processes and to free interpersonal resources for an individual adjustment. This has implications for further planning of support for couples facing life transitions and aging-related changes.

Managing the retention or divestment of material possessions in the transition to retirement: implications for sustainable consumption and for later-life wellbeing

It has been argued that lifecourse transitions are transformative moments for individuals when lifestyles, habits and behaviours are potentially open to contemplation and change. Within sustainability research such ‘moments of change’ are regarded as offering potential to encourage less environmentally damaging consumption patterns. Research on consumption indicates that orientations to material goods and their affective significance are complex. Whilst sociological work understands attachment to things as integral to maintaining kinship relations, this is hard to reconcile with long-standing moral concerns about materialism and psychological research which indicates a negative relationship between the acquisition of material objects and wellbeing, and the environmental implications of acquiring and divesting ‘stuff’. Yet there has been little engagement with how older people orient to their material possessions and divestment, the implications of this for later-life wellbeing and for environmental sustainability. In this paper, we draw these different strands of work together to understand how retirees relate to their material possessions and their divestment. Drawing on serial interviews with individuals in the United Kingdom, we explore how the transition to retirement highlights the complexity of participants’ attachment to things. While some items had profound relational significance, others were experienced as troublesome. Decisions on what to divest were shaped by pragmatic considerations and levels of attachment, whilst modes of divestment were aligned with values of thrift.

The experiences of older carers of people with learning disabilities: “I just carry on with it”

Purpose Because people with learning disabilities (LD) are living longer, their family carers are likely to continue their caring role for longer. This study aims to explore the experiences of older carers of people with LD. Design/methodology/approach In total, 16 interviews with older carers were carried out and analysed qualitatively. Findings Three main themes emerged from the data: “transition to retirement is a misnomer”; “impact of caring role”; and “fears for the future”. Originality/value Previous studies have not focussed on the specific experiences of “older” carers and their situation risks going unnoticed. Their experiences should be acknowledged by services and society and meaningful support provided.