Eddies in the stream: the prevalence of uncertain plans for retirement.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined an assumption of retirement theory that typifies older workers as preretirees who are planfully engaged in paths toward retirement. METHODS: Using survey responses among workers in the 1992 and 1994 waves of the Health and Retirement Study, we described the prevalence of nonsubstantive answers to questions about the expected form and timing of retirement (e.g., "don't know," "haven't thought about it"). We tested explanations for this uncertainty as an artifact of the survey process, but also as an outcome of the opportunity structure for retirement planning. RESULTS: Survey procedure did generate some of these noncommittal responses. Depending on question type, approximately 10% to 40% of workers did not state when or how they would retire, and such responses were less prevalent across age and time. In addition, categorical uncertainty about form and timing was theoretically predictable in a framework that supposed that workers less subject to a socially attended life--at work or away--would be more undecided about the future. DISCUSSION: Uncertainty is an authentic, meaningful stance toward retirement that theory and research design should not ignore. Just as actual transitions to retirement can be ambiguous or blurred, the expectation of retirement, as well, can be untidy.

What families know about funeral-related costs: implications for social work practice.

Social workers provide essential services in the area of end-of-life care to individuals who are dying and their families. Results reported here suggest that social work's role be expanded to provide basic information about local final arrangement (funeral and burial) options and costs. This study was undertaken to determine the knowledge and experience level of people responsible for funeral and cemetery arrangements and to investigate factors affecting familiarity with final costs. Survey responses from 163 survivors of older adults in Kansas City showed that adult children play an important role in the final arrangements of a parent and that half the survivors responsible for final arrangements had no idea what to expect in terms of costs.

Entitlements, generational equity, and public-opinion manipulation in Kansas City.

To sow public doubts about Social Security and other federal old-age programs, one would need to erode their bases of support. This case study describes a year-long editorial campaign by The Kansas City Star that argued repeatedly for retrenchment of federal old-age programs and essentially promoted the policy agenda of the Concord Coalition. Generational inequity was a strong series theme. Readers, especially young people, were recruited to participate in public events that manufactured quotable support for the paper's stance. Throughout, shrill and unflattering portrayals of age-group interests did little to advance civic understanding of policy issues or forestall intergenerational tensions.

Profiling plans for retirement.

Actual decision making for retirement is largely inaccessible to investigation, yet research can focus on plans as a window into the preretirement process. This article proposes a construct that profiles five generic types of retirement plans, including plans to retire completely, change jobs, never retire, and uncertainty about retirement. The heuristic value of the construct lies in its recognition of the heterogeneity of retirement intentions. The five plan types were operationalized among workers aged 51-61 in the 1992 Health and Retirement Study. Convergent validity was demonstrated by comparisons to analogous survey questions. Construct validity was shown by predictable relationships between intentions and elements of workers' opportunity structure. The retirement-plans construct can serve as the foundation for a taxonomy of specific retirement plans (e.g., about timing, employment), to organize research on stability and change in retirement intentions, and characterize the path dependence of eventual retirement behavior.

Evidence for a preretirement process among older male workers.

As part of a preretirement role-exit process, older workers could be expected to reinterpret their situations and report less favorable job attitudes as they approach retirement. Using 4-wave, 9-year (1978-1987) panel data on 1,365 nonretired male workers aged 50-69, attitudes about job tension and fatigue were examined along the dimension of self-reported proximity (time-left) to retirement. Results from pooled time-series analysis showed that men evaluated their jobs as more burdensome when drawing closer to a fixed age for retirement, regardless of age and other factors. This is evidence for a preretirement dynamic, and it encourages the notion that time-left at work organizes the experience of older workers.

Differences in social support among retirees and workers: findings from the Normative Aging Study.

Cross-sectional differences between retirees and workers in the importance of coworkers as a source of support, as well as in general quantitative support (social networks and frequency of interaction) and qualitative support (confidants and the perceived reliability of support) were examined. The sample consisted of 1,513 older men (mean age = 61), participants in the Normative Aging Study. Half (56%) were working, and the rest were retired. Slightly fewer retirees than workers reported coworker friends, especially among those who were long-term retirees or who did not work at all in retirement. Whereas similar findings were seen with quantitative support, workers and retirees reported nearly identical levels of qualitative support. However, retirees almost never discussed personal problems with former coworkers. The relevance of these findings for the convoy construct is discussed.

Change in drinking behaviors with retirement: findings from the normative aging study.

This study examines changes in drinking behaviors over an approximately 2-year span in two groups of community-dwelling men: 100 men who retired between baseline (T1) and follow-up (T2) and 316 men who remained employed. Measures were obtained from two drinking surveys conducted as part of a panel study of aging. Results indicate that the event of retirement was not a significant predictor of changes in average alcohol consumption, although retirees showed more variability between T1 and T2. Considering other binary drinking behavior variables, continuing workers and eventual retirees did not differ in the proportions moving into or out of the nondrinker status, or the situation of consuming an average of 3+ drinks/day. However, retirees by T2 were more likely to report the onset of periodic heavier drinking and problems with drinking. Evidence from this study indicates that retirement generally heralds no great shift in alcohol consumption or drinking behaviors.

Orderly endings: do men know when they will retire?

In order to describe the subjective (as opposed to the statistical) predictability of the retirement event, this study examined the timing of men's retirement relative to their own expectations. On-time and off-time retirements were assessed in a panel of older workers, participants in the VA Normative Aging Study, who were surveyed about work and retirement in 1978, 1981, and 1984. Over spans of two years, 66 percent of workers accurately predicted their eventual date of retirement (+/- 1 year), and 40 percent were exact to within three months. However, approximately one-third of workers did not accurately foresee their date of retirement, having either unfulfilled plans or unanticipated retirements. From a life course perspective, we interpret retirement as an orderly event when two-thirds of a sample can retire as planned. From a practical perspective (e.g., an interest in program development or research design), retirement is not orderly enough when one-third of exits are unscheduled.

Forced vital capacity and the risk of hypertension. The Normative Aging Study.

This report describes the development of hypertension among 1,270 males (aged 23-80 years at the time of entry into the study) observed prospectively for 10 years who had a baseline blood pressure of less than 140/90 mmHg and who underwent baseline spirometry. Subjects were participants in the Normative Aging Study, a longitudinal study on aging initiated in 1961 at the Veterans Administration Outpatient Clinic in Boston, Massachusetts. Blood pressures were taken at five- and 10-year follow-up examinations. The age-adjusted incidence of hypertension during the follow-up period was found to be inversely related to forced vital capacity. Multiple logistic regression was employed to assess the relation of forced vital capacity to the subsequent development of hypertension after controlling for baseline levels of age, weight, cigarettes smoked per day, and systolic and diastolic blood pressures. Forced vital capacity was a statistically significant and negative predictor, indicating that lower values of forced vital capacity were associated with the subsequent development of hypertension. This was consistently found in several logistic regression analyses with a standardized odds ratio associated with forced vital capacity of approximately 0.7. Although the physiologic mechanism for this association is unknown, these findings may have importance in identifying subjects at risk and may also provide insight into disease pathogenesis.

Mental health differences among retirees and workers: findings from the Normative Aging Study.

Researchers during the past decade have found little effect of retirement on physical health. However, retirement entails a number of losses, and its effect on mental health, as measured by the prevalence of psychological symptoms, is unclear. We examined psychological symptoms in a sample of 1,513 older men, participants in the Normative Aging Study, using the SCL-90-R (Derogatis, 1983). Analyses of variance indicated that retirees reported more psychological symptoms than did workers, even after controlling for physical health status. Exploratory analyses examining the circumstances of retirement found no effects for length of retirement or part-time employment, but did find effects for the timing of retirement. Both early and late retirees reported more psychological symptoms. Late workers (aged 66 and older) reported the fewest symptoms. Reasons for these findings are discussed.

Proximity to retirement and anticipatory involvement: findings from the Normative Aging Study.

This study investigated the level of workers' informal retirement-oriented behavior in the years preceding retirement. Two research questions were addressed: (a) What is the relationship between retirement proximity and preretirement involvement behaviors, and (b) How might retirement involvement levels be further affected by attitude toward retirement, job characteristics, and personal resources? Data were collected from 816 male workers participating in a long-term panel study of aging who anticipated retiring within the next 15 years. Results indicated that preretirement involvement increased with retirement proximity and that the association held even among men who dreaded retirement or were satisfied with their jobs. These findings suggest that a process of anticipating retirement is underway well in advance of withdrawal from work and that a gathering involvement in retirement is normative as the event approaches.

An empirical test for phases of retirement: findings from the Normative Aging Study.

Although gerontologists have shown considerable interest in describing possible phases of retirement, the temporal course of retirement experience remains largely unspecified. This study of 293 male retirees from the Normative Aging Study used cross-sectional data to compare levels of life satisfaction and lesiure activities across 6-month time intervals within the first 3 years after retirement. Regression models were used to test the hypothesis that men retired 0 to 6 months differed from men retired for longer periods. Findings showed that, compared with these recent retirees, men retired 13 to 18 months had lower levels of overall life satisfaction and self-perceived involvement in physical activities. Analyses of the constituents of life satisfaction showed greater optimism and future orientation among recent retirees and a comparative deficit at 13 to 18 months. These findings support an interpretation that the immediate postretirement period is marked by more enthusiasm and that some degree of temporary letdown or dysphoria is likely during the second year of retirement.

Change in blood pressure and total cholesterol with retirement.

This study examines change in systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and total serum cholesterol over a three-year span in two groups of men aged 55-74 years at follow-up: 1) 262 men who were working at baseline but retired at follow-up, and 2) 409 age peers who remained employed at both measurement times. Measures were obtained from medical examinations conducted since the early 1970s as part of the prospective Veterans Administration Normative Aging Study in Boston. Regression analyses showed an average increase of 3.44 mmHg in systolic blood pressure, 1.62 mmHg in diastolic blood pressure, and 5.56 mg/dl in cholesterol for retirees compared with workers. The relative increases in the blood pressure variables were statistically significant. However, a logistic regression analysis did not show a greater incidence of hypertension among retirees compared with workers. The odds ratio, standardized for baseline blood pressure, body mass index, and age, was 0.90 (95 per cent confidence interval 0.56-1.45). Among retirees only, analyses of covariance showed that levels of blood pressure and cholesterol were comparable from one six-month interval to the next in the three years preceding and following retirement. Overall, the effects of retirement were not of sufficient magnitude to conclude that retirement had a clinically significant impact on blood pressure or cholesterol.

The effect of retirement on physical health.

This prospective study compared pre- to post-retirement changes in physical health among male retirees with changes among age peers who continued to work. The 229 retirees and 409 workers aged 55-73 at follow-up were all participants in the Veterans Administration Normative Aging Study. Physical health at baseline and follow-up (three to four years apart) was rated on a four-point scale according to the findings of medical examinations. Although physical health declined generally over time, regression analyses showed no significant difference between eventual retirees and continuing workers on health change, after controlling for age and excluding men who retired due to illness or disability. Among retirees alone, pre- to post-retirement health change was also not significantly associated with several circumstances which purportedly make the retirement transition more stressful, such as mandatory retirement or retirement to a reduced standard of living. The results of this study of physical health, which corroborate those of other studies based on self-reported health measures and mortality data, support the conclusion that the event of retirement does not influence the risk of health deterioration.

Claims that retirement improves health.

The notion that retiring can benefit health has gone largely unexplored, though large proportions of retirees retrospectively claim improved health upon retirement. Although some of these claims may have a medical basis, it is more likely that retirees perceive that their health has improved due to the reduced role demands that may accompany retirement. This study used prospective data to compare men who claimed that retirement had a good effect on their health (n = 114) with men who claimed no effect of retirement on health (n = 149). Results showed that retrospective claims of good effects were not corroborated by a corresponding longitudinal, pre- to post-retirement improvement in self-reported health. Claims of good effects, however, were indeed more likely among men whose retirement entailed the reduction of prior job strain and role demands, thereby supporting the interpretation that such claims represent the enhancement of functional health status.