Abstract
Drawing on self-determination theory, the present study examined how satisfaction of the basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) changes across the retirement transition and how need satisfaction was related to depressive symptoms across the retirement transition. Participants (N = 2655) were drawn from the HEalth, Ageing and Retirement Transitions in Sweden (HEARTS) study. Latent growth curve modeling showed that autonomy need satisfaction increased across the retirement transition, whereas competence and relatedness remained relatively stable. Higher need satisfaction was related to less depressive symptoms at baseline, however, pre-retirement need satisfaction was not a statistically significant predictor of subsequent changes in depressive symptoms (or vice versa) across the retirement transition. At the within-person level, higher than usual need satisfaction at a specific time point was related to less than usual depressive symptoms. Need satisfaction may be an important factor to consider across the retirement transition and need satisfying activities prior, during, and after the transition may ease peoples’ adjustment to retirement.
Highlights
IntroductionHow people adjust to the transition from work to retirement has gained increased interest in psychological research in recent years (e.g., Aspinwall 2005; Barbosa et al 2016; Bye and Pushkar 2009; Custers et al 2014; Wang and Shi 2014)
Retirement is a major life course event in adult life
Another study using data from the HEARTS study showed that the within-person relation between autonomy need satisfaction and life satisfaction was stronger after retirement than before retirement and that the between-person relation between competence need satisfaction and life satisfaction was negative among workers and positive among retirees (Henning et al 2019a). These results provide an initial indication that need satisfaction may change across the retirement transition and that the magnitude of the relation between need satisfaction and psychological well-being can change across the retirement transition
Summary
How people adjust to the transition from work to retirement has gained increased interest in psychological research in recent years (e.g., Aspinwall 2005; Barbosa et al 2016; Bye and Pushkar 2009; Custers et al 2014; Wang and Shi 2014). A better understanding of how people adjust to retirement is important because it provides information about how to improve the quality of postretirement life, besides the opportunity to understand how people adjust to internal (i.e., physical and psychological aging) and external (i.e., lifestyle and societal norms) challenges in later life (Wang et al 2011). Researchers often rely on various well-being outcomes to understand how people adjust to retirement life (Wang 2012). When measured longitudinally across the retirement transition and into post-retirement, changes and variability in these outcomes can be used as an indication of retirement adjustment (Wang 2012; Wang and Shi 2014)
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