Retirement rarely affects only a single individual. No matter how personal the joys and sorrows of retirement may be, the interpersonal relations theyhave shape retirees’ reactions. Social ties help people deal with the stresses of retirement, as they do in other life transitions. In many cases, these ties involve friendships and other relationships formed earlier […]

Researchers agree on one point about retirement: It is an important life transition. New patterns of involvement must be developed in the context of changing roles and lifestyles (Antonovsky & Sagy, 1990; Wang, 2007). Until the early 1990s, research focused on what was thought to be a sequence of pre­dictable phases of retirement, such as […]

The decision to retire is an intensely personal one that involves carefully weighing several factors. Overall, more workers retire by choice than for any other reason (Hayward, Friedman, & Chen, 1998; Henretta, Chan, & O’Rand, 1992). People usually retire when they feel financially secure, consider­ing projected income from Social Security, pen­sion plans, and personal savings. […]

We noted in the text that retirement can be defined from at least three main perspectives and that the changing nature of work is also creating changes in how retirement is viewed. Try finding evidence of these changes in your own community. Pay a visit to a local senior centerand talk with some of the […]

Like leisure, retirement is difficult to define. Retire­ment is more difficult to define than just guessing from someone’s age (Henretta, 1997; Szinovacz & DeViney, 1999). One way to look at retirement is to equate it with complete withdrawal from the work­force. But this definition is inadequate; many retired people continue to work part time (Mutchler […]

What do people like the woman in the photograph gain from participating in leisure activities? Researchers agree that involvement in leisure activi­ties is related to well-being (Guinn, 1999; Kelly, 1996; McGuire et al., 1996; Warr et al., 2004) and may even be related to reduced risk for Alzheimer’s disease (Crowe et al., 2003). The key […]

Cross-sectional studies report age differences in leisure activities (Bray & Howard, 1983). Young adults participate in a greater range of activi­ties than middle-aged adults do. Furthermore, Work, Leisure, and Retirement 477young adults tend to prefer intense leisure activi­ties, such as scuba diving and hang gliding. In contrast, middle-aged adults focus more on home — and […]

Leisure can include virtually any activity. To help organize the options, researchers have classified lei­sure activities into four categories: cultural—such as attending sporting events, concerts, church ser­vices, and meetings; physical—such as basketball, hiking, aerobics, and gardening; social—such as visiting friends and going to parties; and solitary— including reading, listening to music, and watch­ing television (Bosse […]

LEARNING OBJECTIVES • What types of leisure activities do adults exhibit? • What developmental differences are there in leisure activities? • What do people derive from leisure activities? A nthony is a 55-year-old electrician who has enjoyed outdoor activities his whole life. From the time he was a boy, he has fished and water-skied in […]

One of the largest issues still facing American society in the new millennium is how dual-earner couples can balance their occupational and family roles. With the majority of couples now consisting of two wage earners, issues such as who does the household chores and how child care is arranged will become increasingly important. Many people […]