THE INFLUENCE OF THE EARLY RETIREMENT PROCESS ON SATISFACTION WITH EARLY RETIREMENT AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING*

The present study explores the influence of the early retirement process on adjustment to early retirement, taking into account the roles of individual characteristics and social context in this process. We proposed a systematic model integrating perceived ability to continue working, organizational pressures toward early retirement and group norms about early retirement as antecedents of the early retirement process and subsequent satisfaction with early retirement and psychological well-being. In addition, we examined the moderating role of the voluntariness of the early retirement transition in the proposed model. Our hypotheses were tested using a sample of 213 early retirees. We found that while high organizational pressures were related to lower retirement age, low perceived ability to continue working and group norms favorable to early retirement were related to higher levels of early retirement intentions. Furthermore, group norms favorable to early retiremen