Abstract
BackgroundResearch on the health and wellbeing of retirees has tended to focus on financial security and financial planning. However, we suggest that one reason why financial security is important for retirees is that it enables social connectedness, which is critical for healthy ageing.MethodsThis paper tests this hypothesis cross-sectionally (N = 3109) and longitudinally (N = 404) using a population-weighted mixed effects mediation model in two nationally representative samples of Australian retirees.ResultsAnalyses provide robust support for our model. Subjective financial security predicted retiree health cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Social connectedness also consistently predicted mental health and physical health, on average four times more strongly than financial security. Furthermore, social connectedness partially accounted for the protective effect of subjective financial security.ConclusionsWe discuss the implications of these findings for public health, with a particular emphasis on how social connectedness can be better supported for people transitioning to retirement.
Highlights
Research on the health and wellbeing of retirees has tended to focus on financial security and financial planning
A substantial industry has evolved to address this concern, with superannuation, annuity, and pension schemes providing a raft of services that promise to provide financial planning and management as people approach retirement
Confirming Hypothesis 1 (H1), Model 3 showed that subjective financial security significantly predicted mental health, β = .29, p < .001; Confidence Interval (CI): .25
Summary
Participants and design Respondents were drawn from a nationally representative population sample of Australian residents in the Housing, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey (HILDA, [27]). HILDA uses a stratified three-stage clustered design and samples all members of selected households on an annual basis. This dataset is recognised internationally as having some of the strongest survey methodology due to its high retention, systematic sampling strategy, and high data quality [28]. The second (N = 404) was a longitudinal sample of workers transitioning to retirement between Waves and 15. These respondents indicated at Wave that they had transitioned to retirement in the last year, and/or listed themselves as employed in Wave 14 and ‘completely retired’ in Wave 15. We excluded participants who were younger than 45 years old on the basis that they were likely to re-enter the workforce (consistent with recommendations of the Australian Bureau of Statistics [29])
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