Work versus leisure roles: An investigation of morale among employed and retired men

This investigation focused on the social-psychological impact of retirement upon men aged 65 and older. The 1589 men studied represented the male subsample of a national multi-stage proba-bility sample of noninstitutionalized men and women 65 and older. It was hypothesized that the retired exhibit lower morale than the employed even when controlling for the separate and combined effects of perception of health, functional disability, income, and age, factors found to be related to both employment status and morale. Examination of the data revealed that the retired did have lower morale than the employed but that the magnitude of the relationship was extremely small when the combined effects of health, age, and income were partialled out. It is concluded, therefore, that the lower morale of retired men is primarily explained by their poorer health, lower incomes, and more advanced age and not simply by their retirement. HPHERE is considerable controversy regarding •* • the social-psychological impact of retire-ment upon American men. One argument is that separation from work at retirement leads or can lead to demoralization because it repre-sents the loss of a culturally dominant social role and the acquisition of a culturally de-valued one. According to this position, the leisure or secondary roles available to the retiree are generally not adequate substitutes for the worker role because of a lack of clear-cut and positive norms regulating behavior in these secondary roles (Riley, Foner, Hess, & Toby, 1969). A basic premise of this argument is that work and not leisure is the dominant value in American society and the major source of a man's social status and self-respect. In view of this, retirement is believed to signify to the individual as well as to others that the retiree is old, useless, and no longer a contributing and vital member of the community. The result frequently is the loss of social status and posi