Retirement Ready or Not: Psychosocial Factors that Influence the Decision to Delay Retirement Among Workers 60 and Older in Westchester County

The purpose of this sequential explanatory mixed methods study was to examine psychosocial factors such as meaning of work, work-role attachment, activities in retirement, and retirement planning, education programs, and retirement attitudes that influence the decision to delay retirement among workers 60 and older in Westchester County. A 36 item web-based Delayed Retirement Questionnaire (DRQ) collected quantitative data from a sample of (N=53) respondents and qualitative data was collected through two focus groups with (N=15) participants. The findings helped to determine whether non-health and financial factors influence the decision to delay retirement. The findings indicated that finances were a key consideration in the decision to delay the retirement. Other contributing factors that influenced the retirement decision included personal, social, financial and generative factors associated with the meaning of work. The results revealed that work-attachment dimensions of job satisfaction, career and organizational commitment did not singularly show a relationship with the decision to delay retirement. However, the combination of meaning of work and work-role attachment showed a relationship between these two variables as factors that contributed to the decision to delay retirement. Psychosocial factors such as employment tenure, number of years of collecting Social Security benefits, and retirement attitudes had statistical significant in showing a relationship with the delayed retirement decision. This study may offer practical vi knowledge for individuals, organizations, human resource professionals, retirement educators, and policy- makers to address the growing delayed retirement phenomenon