Retirement and life satisfaction

Abstract

Through their work people not only earn their living, but also gain a status within society and fulfill society's expectations from them. Through retirement, a point at which they are terminated from work, people lose, among other things, the job role that they have been accustomed to playing for many years. The objective of this thesis is to find out whether lois of job role influences one's life satisfaction and whether there are sex differences in this matter. For this purpose, a life satisfaction scale was devised and tested. Working and non-working retirees were interviewed and their life satisfaction scores were obtained on this scale. Answers given to the items in the questionnaire were analyzed to test the following hypothesis: 1- When female non-working retirees are compared with male retirees in general (working and non-working) a higher mean score of life satisfaction is expected for females. 1a) Non-working female/retirees will have a higher average life satisfaction score than working male retirees. 1b) Non-working female retirees will have a higher mean life satisfaction score than their male counterparts. 2- Male retirees who regain the worker role through re-employment will score higher in overall life satisfaction than non-working male retirees. The first hypothesis was found to receive some support for those younger than 58 years of age, whereas sub-hypotheses 1a and 1b, as well as the second hypothesis were rejected. As a result, the hypotheses were rejected, except that data relevant to the first hypothesis showed a tendency to be in the expected direction. Female retirees compared to male retirees in general scored relatively higher in average life satisfaction. This may be a result of traditional sex-role expectations that assign husbands as the responsible person to provide material support for the family while the duty of the wife is to manage the household. Thus, after retirement, females may feel free of the double burden of work and home duties tha't cause stress throughout the working years, whereas males take up work life after retirement mainly involuntarily. Rejection of the second hypothesis throws doubt on the meaning 'attached to jobs and working by retirees in the current sample. It is assumed that an insignificant meaning is attached to working so that retirement does not cause severe problems for men as it has been found to be the case in western societies.