C. HERVE ET AL.
Overall, our sample appeared to have adapted well to retire-
ment and showed a true sense of satisfaction with their retired
life. Nevertheless, different profiles of satisfaction and well-
being emerged when different variables were isolated in each
group, providing a clearer picture of the mechanisms of satis-
faction with retirement. For example, appreciation of the age of
retiring varied between the two groups. Those who retired after
the age of 60 spoke positively of their age when they left work,
whereas those who retired earlier expressed regrets about their
age. Those who retired after the age of 60 considered that the
age at which they retired was satisfactory and a normal time of
life to stop working. By contrast, those who retired before 60
thought that they had retired too early and would have preferred
to stop work later. With no information about why the partici-
pants had retired at a particular age, the difference of apprecia-
tion observed in each group remains purely descriptive. How-
ever, the literature reports that the reasons motivating an indi-
vidual to retire from professional life have a major impact on
the way this transition is experienced. Research has shown that
involuntary retirement can have a negative impact on adapta-
tion (Bossé, Spiro, & Levenson, 1997), individuals who retire
involuntarily tending to be more anxious, depressed or stressed
than those who retire voluntarily (Sharpley & Layt o n , 1998).
Analysis of the quality of adaptation to retirement according
to retiring age using questionnaires of well-being (Diener, Such,
Lucas, & Smith, 1999), satisfaction with life (Ryff & Keyes,
1995), and boredom (Gana & Akremi, 1998), and a list of pa-
thologies to which elderly people are potentially at risk (ad-
aptation—OARS; Duke University, 1978), reveal different pro-
files of adaptation depending on whether the retiring age is
before or after the age of 60.
Our sample as a whole had adapted well to this period of
transition, with scores indicating a state of well-being and sat-
isfaction with retired life and low scores for boredom and
ill-health.
Regarding the evaluation of well-being, people who retired
after the age of 60 considered their health to be better than that
of their peers. It thus seems that extending working life con-
tributes to satisfactory health, and that prolonged contact with
the professional and social environment of work to an advanced
age favours good health among the retired population. Many
studies refer to the importance of the social environment and its
effects on health (Unger, McAvay, Bruce, Berkman, & See-
man, 1999) and well-being (Sarason et al., 1990; Vaux, 1990;
Prince, Harwook, Blizard, Thomas, & Mann, 1997).
Our results show that people who retire before the age of 60
years, and particularly those who are married, seem more satis-
fied with their life than other retirees. The possibility of sharing
more time with the spouse remains a criterion of satisfaction for
people who retire early. According to Atchley (1976), recently
retired people go through a euphoric phase in which they aim to
achieve things they had never had time to do. Gilford (1984)
makes similar observations: newly retired couples tend to
compensate for the decrease in professional activities by spend-
ing more time together, thus intensifying the couple’s interde-
pendence. We also observed that the retiring age had significant
effects on the feeling of boredom and on the evaluation of
health.
Two important elements emerged:
1) Participants who retired before the age of 60 express more
boredom than those who retired later.
2) The number of pathologies reported by people who retired
early is greater than those reported by people who retired after
60.
In line with Parkes’ conclusions (1971) concerning various
life transitions, we observed that when a change takes place
gradually (as is the case for people who retire after the age of
60), the person has more time to prepare for the new lifestyle;
the probability for the retired person to be satisfied with this
change is greater than if retirement is seen as being early.
Finally, with regard to the factors of satisfaction with retiring
age, the variables extracted from our analyses appear to be re-
liable indicators of satisfaction for both groups; for the early
retired population, the final model explained 10% of the vari-
ance. However, for people who retired after 60, the model ex-
plained only 5% of the variance. The main factors of satisfac-
tion with retiring age are identical in the two groups. In prince-
ple, and irrespective of the participants’ age, a high level of
education appears to be the main factor of satisfaction with the
time of retiring; a high academic qualification leading to good
living conditions produces a feeling of satisfaction with retire-
ment.
In short, the main finding of our study highlights the impor-
tance of drawing attention to the retiring age, which emerged as
a significant factor in successful transition to retirement. While
the conditions for retiring are largely determined by law, only
the individual can determine his/her own readiness for retire-
ment based on self-image and perception of his/her capacities.
Our study reveals that socio-economic variables have a limited
predictive impact on how well people adapt to retirement. In
line with the work of Floyd et al. (1992) on life satisfaction, our
study reveals that the way individuals see themselves in their
own life and their perception of retirement largely determines
their satisfaction with the age at which they stop work. Socio-
demographic factors are of secondary importance. Similar re-
sults have been reported by Ryff, 1995. Life experiences and
how they are interpreted are the clue to overall life satisfaction.
Like all research, this study has its limitations. The first is
psycho-sociological. Our sample consisted of retirees belonging
to the upper social classes, who were well-educated, in good
health, and had mostly adapted well to retirement. This sample
is thus not representative of the retired community as a whole,
but it reveals the existence of a link between boredom and re-
gret at retiring too early, generally before the age of 60. The
second limitation concerns the lack of information about how
our participants had prepared their retirement. Many studies
insist on the need to prepare workers for retirement from the
professional world. Research has shown that preparation for
retirement is often associated with better adaptation and with a
low level of psychological distress (Lo & Brown, 1999; Shar-
pley & Layton, 1998). A period of preparation would allow the
future retiree to develop a favourable attitude towards retire-
ment, to have a better understanding of his means, and to be
less nostalgic of his previous professional life.
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Bossé, R., Spiro, A., & Levenson, M. R. (1997). Retirement as a stress-
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