Psychological and socioeconomic factors influencing men and women's planning for retirement : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Turitea, New Zealand
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Date
2010
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Massey University
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Abstract
Concerns for the future well-being of the Post World War II “Baby Boom” generation
continue to increase as many approach retirement age. These concerns stem from the
expected strain on social security and health systems when this generation leaves the paid
workforce. Retirement planning has been identified by social science researchers as one way
of protecting pre-retirees’ future well-being, but there are many problems within this
research. For example, the long-term benefits of retirement planning are yet to be confirmed,
the causal relationships between socioeconomic, psychological, and demographic variables
have been under-theorised, and existing conceptualisations of retirement planning have not
adequately captured the construct. This has had implications for the resultant measures and
for the development of new retirement planning knowledge. A programme comprising four
studies was designed to address these limitations in the retirement planning research.
For Study One, longitudinal data from the American Health and Retirement Survey were
used to illustrate the prospective benefits of retirement planning on well-being in later life.
For Study Two, a sub-sample of 2,277 working men and women from the New Zealand
Health, Work, and Retirement survey, was used to theorise and model the causal effects of
SES, work involvement, and retirement perceptions on retirement planning from a gendered
perspective. Study Three described the development and validation of a comprehensive and
theoretically driven measure of retirement planning using a population sample of 1,449 New
Zealand pre-retirees. Fifty two items were developed to assess each stage of the retirement
planning process for financial, health, lifestyle, and psychosocial planning. The final study
used the same data to examine the relationships between certain psychological,
socioeconomic, and demographic variables and the process of retirement planning. The
results indicated that these variables were inconsistently correlated with the different stages
III
of the planning process. These inconsistencies were theorised as barriers to completing the
retirement planning process.
Overall, the results of the four studies indicate that retirement planning predicts well-being
and that certain groups are less prepared than others. Conceptualising retirement planning as
a process has the potential to build on our current understandings by generating research
questions that have not previously been considered. These new understandings will have
implications for future research and for retirement policy aimed at promoting retirement
planning for the next generation of retirees.
Description
Content consists of peer-reviewed author manuscripts of published work:
Noone, J. H., Stephens, C., & Alpass, F. M. (2009). Pre-retirement planning and well-being
in later life: A prospective study. Research on Aging, 31(3), 295-317.
Published version available from: http://roa.sagepub.com/content/31/3/295.abstract
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0164027508330718
Noone, J. H., Stephens, C. V. & Alpass, F. M. (2009). Do men and women still differ in their
retirement planning? Testing a theoretical model of gendered pathways to retirement
preparation. Research on Aging, 32(6), 715-738
Published version available from: http://roa.sagepub.com/content/32/6/715.abstract
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0164027510383531
Noone, J. H., Stephens, C., & Alpass, F. M. (2010). The Process of Retirement Planning Scale
(PRePS): Development and validation. Psychological Assessment, 22 (3) 520-531
Published version available from: http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/pas/22/3/520/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0019512
Keywords
Retirement planning, Gender differences, American Health and Retirement Survey, Process of Retirement Planning Scale (PRePS)