The impact of retirement on personal adjusment, 1988

This study looked at retirees who voluntarily retired compared with nonvoluntary retirees to determine the individual factors that led to a decision to retire; and the impact of that decision on retirement attitudes and satisfaction. Two Senior Citizen Centers were used. Voluntary retirees tended to be persons with higher income, fairly good health status, and had a more positive feeling about retirement. Additionally, voluntary retirees had more support systems which attributed to their decision to retire, compared with nonvoluntary retirees. Voluntary retirees were significantly more likely to have positive attitudes and higher satisfaction in retirement than nonvoluntary retirees. Implications for social work practice and further research are discussed