Psychological resources and successful retirement

Although most people eventually make a satisfactory adjustment to retirement, some people experience difficulties in managing the transition. While measures of wellbeing are frequently included as outcomes in studies of retirement, few studies have examined the impact of retirement on health behaviours. Further, the contribution of psychological resources such as self-efficacy and sense of coherence in coping with transitions has largely been ignored. Data from the Health Status of Older People project were used to test the hypothesis that psychological resources would moderate the relationship between retirement and changes in health behaviours and wellbeing. People who had retired within the previous 5 years were compared with three other groups: those who were still working, those who were partly retired, and those who had been retired for between 6 and 10 years. Recently retired people were found to be more likely than other groups to have experienced recent reductions in physical and social activity but increases in happiness. High self-efficacy and sense of coherence predicted positive changes in health behaviours and wellbeing. However, there was no interaction effect between any of the psychological resources and retirement status in predicting recent changes in health behaviours and wellbeing. Psychological resources act to increase the chances that positive changes will occur in health behaviours and wellbeing of older people regardless of their retirement status.