Psychosocial profiles of early retirees based on experiences during post-working life transition and adjustment to retirement

Abstract

Early retirement is a kind of occupational withdrawal that affects a heterogeneous group of workers. In order to identify types of retirees with similarities in their way of exiting from working life, satisfaction with post-working life and socio-demographic characteristics, we administered an adaption of the Retirement Satisfaction Inventory (Floyd et al., 1992) to a sample of 638 Spanish early retirees. Data using cluster analysis showed two major groups of retirees: workers who desired to accept the offer of early retirement and non-volunteers. Regarding the first group, the results show that pursuing personal interests during post-working life motivates their organizational exit. They reported less pressure from their employers during the exit process, and experienced high levels of freedom and control of their lives after leaving work. However, non-volunteer retirees stated that pressure from their employers was the reason for their early retirement. Within this group, two subgroups can be identified as a function of their educational level and professional status. The description of the experience of transition to retirement and satisfaction with post-working life is an approach aimed to understand a complex and heterogeneous experience.