Emotional Well-Being Following a Later Life Career Change: The Roles of Agency and Resources.

More individuals are attempting career changes in later life, as an increasing number of people face precarious retirement prospects. Although many of these older job seekers eventually find new livelihoods, little is known about their emotional well-being subsequent to these changes. Using the 2014 American Institute for Economic Research Older Worker Survey, we evaluate the contributions of demographic characteristics, agency, and resources when estimating three measures of emotional well-being following a successful later life career change ( n = 337). We found that having financial resources during the career transition was associated with all three positive emotional outcomes, while family support and intentionality were also associated with positive emotions. Conversely, prior job prestige and purposeful job training had no relationships with subsequent well-being. These results suggest that later life career changes, despite their challenges, often result in positive emotional outlooks-for those who have the resources to support them.

Psychological perspectives on the changing nature of retirement.

The concept and the process of retirement are rapidly evolving. As a result, psychologists are in a unique position to understand and explain the dynamics behind the changing face of retirement. We begin this article with a brief overview of the history of retirement and then note the various definitions used when studying retirement. We then propose that taking a temporal view of studying retirement would be most advantageous for psychologists. Psychological conceptualizations of retirement are then discussed, and we link these conceptualizations to studying the changing nature of retirement. Finally, we conclude with some suggestions for future research in the area of retirement that would be particularly relevant for psychologists to consider.

Age Differences in the Demand-Control Model of Work Stress: An Examination of Data From 15 European Countries.

There have been many tests of Karasek's demand-control model of work stress. However, no studies have examined how the model may differentially apply to older versus younger workers. Due to age changes in cognitive processing, the psychological demands of jobs may interact differently with controls for younger versus older workers. Therefore, the study uses data from the Eurobarometer to examine how the demand-control model of work stress may function differently for older versus younger workers. The results indicate that different controls may in fact buffer different types of job demands for younger versus older workers. The findings reveal that only the interaction between problem solving and time to complete tasks was significant for younger workers. For older workers, however, the interactions between time deadlines and having sufficient time to complete tasks, autonomy, and the interaction between problem solving and schedule flexibility are significant predictors of self-reported stress.

The choice between retirement and bridge employment: a continuity theory and life course perspective.

The rapid aging of the workforce in most developed countries, and the strengthening presence of bridge employment among older employees, has brought about a need for a deeper theoretical and practical understanding of this employment phenomenon. This study examined the concept of bridge employment from a continuity theory and life course perspective. Several personal and job-related antecedents of 539 middle-aged and older U.S. Federal Government employees' intentions of full retirement or engagement in bridge employment were investigated. A multinomial logistic regression analysis provided support for most of the hypotheses on the antecedents of full retirement and overall bridge employment intentions and hence offered several practical implications for the U.S. Federal Government, as well as other governmental employers. Implications of these results are discussed from a continuity theory and life course perspective.

Bridge employment and retirees' health: a longitudinal investigation.

The present study examined the relationship between bridge employment and retirees' health outcomes (i.e., major diseases, functional limitations, and mental health). We used a nationally representative sample of 12,189 retirees from the first 4 waves of the Health and Retirement Study. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that compared with full retirement, engaging in bridge employment either in a career field or in a different field was associated with fewer major diseases and functional limitations, whereas engaging in career bridge employment was associated with better mental health. The findings highlight the health benefits of engaging in bridge employment for retirees. The practical implications of this study are discussed at both the individual and policy levels. Limitations of the current findings are also noted in conjunction with future research directions.

Antecedents of bridge employment: a longitudinal investigation.

Bridge employment is the labor force participation pattern increasingly observed in older workers between their career jobs and their complete labor force withdrawal. It serves as a transition process from career employment to full retirement. Typical bridge employment decisions include full retirement, career bridge employment, and bridge employment in a different field. In the current study, 3 dominant theories (i.e., role theory, continuity theory, and life course perspective) on retirement processes were reviewed. On the basis of these theories, the authors proposed 4 categories of antecedents (i.e., individual attributes, job-related psychological variables, family-related variables, and a retirement-planning-related variable) of different types of bridge employment decisions. The authors used longitudinal data of a large, nationally representative sample from the Health and Retirement Study (F. Juster & R. Suzman, 1995) to test the current hypotheses. These data were analyzed with multinomial logistic regression, and most of the hypotheses were supported by the results. The implications of this study are discussed at both theoretical and practical levels.

The influence of specific physical health conditions on retirement decisions.

Physical health has consistently been shown to strongly influence the retirement decision-making process. Unfortunately, "physical health" is typically operationalized in global terms. As a result, we know little about the specific aspects of physical health that influence the decision to retire. Therefore, in the present study, data from three waves of the Americans' Changing Lives (ACL) data set was examined to determine which specific health conditions are associated with retirement, continued work in the same job, or continued work but in a different job. The major health conditions most strongly related to retirement were lung disease and cancer, while only lung disease was predictive of job change at older ages. In contrast, arthritis and diabetes were the minor health conditions most strongly related to both changing jobs and retiring over an eight-year period. The results are discussed in terms of the importance of better understanding why specific health factors are associated with retirement and job changes during one's late career.

Work related attitudes of naval officers before and after retirement.

Prospective expectations for retirement and retrospective accounts of past work experiences are typically used in cross-sectional empirical studies of retirement. Unfortunately, little is known about the accuracy of such accounts. Therefore, in the present longitudinal study, we built on the work of Beehr and Nielson (1995) by examining the consistency of these accounts over time using data from 672 military retirees over a four- to five-year period. Mixed evidence for the consistency of these attitudes across time was found. Specifically, our results are much weaker than Beehr and Nielson's results, thus suggesting that longer time intervals between measurements may erode the accuracy of prospective estimates and retrospective accounts. Results are discussed in terms of the uniqueness of the military retirement and how civilian retirement and military retirement are becoming similar.