Abstract
Retirement can be a time of identity disruption for many older adults. Identity process theory (Whitbourne et al., 2002) states that age-related changes, such as retirement, can prompt an individual to incorporate new information about themselves into their personal identity using one of three identity process: assimilation, accommodation, and balance. Additionally, individual identity and the manner in which individuals retire—voluntary or involuntary—are associated with post-retirement well-being (Newton et al., 2018). The current study examined the relationship between identity processes, planned/unplanned retirement, and hedonic (life satisfaction) and eudaimonic (meaning in life) well-being in a sample of retired Canadians. Results indicated that identity accommodation and balance were associated with both types of post-retirement well-being, whereas unplanned retirement was consistently only related to life satisfaction. This study emphasizes the importance of including individual difference factors when examining older adults’ well-being and the utility of measuring well-being in multiple ways.
Highlights
Adulthood, well-b eing increases for midlife and older adults
This study examined relationships between retirement context, individual differences, and well-b eing in older Canadian adults
The first hypothesis stated that an unplanned retirement would be negatively related to well-being and that all identity processes would be related to all well-b eing measures in positive or negative ways; only two of the three identity processes were consistently related to both well-b eing outcomes in the hypothesized manner
Summary
Participants rated their level of agreement from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) on each item, such as “I generally try to avoid change in my life or how I see myself” (assimilation; M = 4.00, SD = 0.81; α = .71); “I have many doubts and questions about myself” (accommodation; M = 2.99, SD = 0.98; α = .89); and “I feel confident in ‘who’ I am but am willing to learn more about myself” (balance; M = 5.60, SD = 0.59; α = .73) These internal consistencies are in line with the study of Sneed and Whitbourne’s (2003) of 173 adults (Mage = 60.80): α = .72, α = .86, and α = .86, respectively. Regression analyses examining the relationship between identity processes and well- being were conducted using the PROCESS procedure (Hayes, 2018) version 3.5.2, with retirement context included as the moderator, and age, health, and household income as covariates (Table 2).
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