Autonomy and loneliness - longitudinal within- and between-person associations among Swedish older adults.

OBJECTIVES: Loneliness is an important risk factor for mental and physical health over the life span. Little is known about psychosocial predictors and consequences of loneliness apart from social network characteristics. One important factor that may both prevent from, but also be affected by loneliness, is perceived autonomy. METHOD: In the present study, we investigated the longitudinal association of loneliness and autonomy over four years among participants of the Swedish Health, Aging and Retirement Transitions in Sweden (HEARTS) study (n = 5718, age 60-66 at baseline). We used a latent curve model with structured residuals, which distinguishes within- and between-person associations and includes cross-lagged parameters. RESULTS: Higher levels of autonomy at baseline were associated with lower levels of loneliness, and increases in autonomy were associated with decreases in loneliness. When individuals felt more autonomous than usual, they also reported less loneliness. However, the cross-lagged paths were not significant, which means that autonomy did not predict loneliness over time on the within-person level, and loneliness did not predict autonomy over time. CONCLUSION: Our findings show that higher autonomy was related to lower loneliness on different analytical levels, but the direction of effects is unclear. More research is needed to understand the development of this association over the life span.

Towards an active and happy retirement? Changes in leisure activity and depressive symptoms during the retirement transition.

Objectives: Retirement is a major life transition in the second half of life, and it can be associated with changes in leisure activity engagement. Although theories of retirement adjustment have emphasized the need to find meaningful activities in retirement, little is known about the nature of changes in leisure activity during the retirement transition and their association with mental health.Methods: Based on four annual waves of the 'Health, Aging and Retirement Transitions in Sweden' study, we investigated the longitudinal association of leisure activity engagement and depressive symptoms using bivariate dual change score models. We distinguished intellectual, social, and physical activity engagement.Results: We found increases in all three domains of activity engagement after retirement. Although level and change of activity and depressive symptoms were negatively associated, the coupling parameters were not significant, thus the direction of effects remains unclear.Conclusion: The results highlight the need to consider the role of lifestyle changes for retirement adjustment and mental health.

The role of personality in retirement adjustment: Longitudinal evidence for the effects on life satisfaction.

OBJECTIVE: Research on retirement suggests that personality can influence the adjustment process, but the mechanisms involved remain still largely unknown. In the present study, we investigate direct and indirect associations between the Big Five personality traits and life satisfaction over the retirement transition. Indirect effects were evaluated through the role of personality for levels and changes in self-esteem, autonomy, social support, self-rated physical health, self-rated cognitive ability, and financial satisfaction. METHOD: Our sample consisted of 796 older adults (age 60-66) and four annual measurement waves from the longitudinal population-based HEalth, Ageing, and Retirement Transitions in Sweden (HEARTS) study, including individuals retiring during the study period. RESULTS: Results from multivariate latent growth curve analysis revealed multiple indirect associations between personality and life satisfaction. Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness were positively related to life satisfaction through higher levels of self-esteem, autonomy, and social support. Neuroticism was negatively associated with life satisfaction through lower levels of self-esteem and lower levels and negative changes in autonomy and social support. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that retirees with higher levels of Neuroticism are more vulnerable in the transition process and they are also more likely to experience adjustment problems resulting from negative changes in key resources.

A French Adaptation and Validation of Retirement Semantic Differential (RSD).

Retirement is associated with numerous representations, some of them being negative and the other positive. Yet, these representations affect the health of individuals in their transition to retirement. However, although the socio-political context in France favors the emergence of numerous representations of retired people, to our knowledge there is no scale validated in French that would allow us to evaluate them. Thus, the objective of this study was to adapt and validate a scale assessing representations of retired people, called the Retirement Semantic Differential (RSD), for a French population. The scale consists of a series of bipolar adjectives related to retirement, such as "active/passive" and "happy/sad", with participants' responses indicating the connotative meaning, positive or negative, about representations of retirement. A total of 279 participants aged 18 to 55 years, recruited online, completed the adapted version of the RSD. The results show that the scale has good psychometric properties. The analysis found a three-factor model, and some items were removed, resulting in a reduced version of the scale (11 items). The results will be discussed in terms of cultural and socio-political differences. This scale could contribute to a better understanding of the deleterious effects on health of the transition to retirement and serve to improve the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing the negative effects of these representations upon young retirees or those preparing for retirement.

Personality and 10-year personality development among Norwegians in midlife-Do retirement and job type play a role?

Our personality develops over the whole lifespan and in particular when our life circumstances change. Retirement is a life event that brings changes in identity, day structures, and social roles of former workers. Therefore, it may affect personality traits such as the Big Five (neuroticism, extraversion, intellect, conscientiousness, and agreeableness). Previous studies have shown conflicting results concerning the question whether and how retirement is associated with changes in personality traits. Furthermore, there is little knowledge about the role of the job people leave behind when retiring. In the present study, we compared personality development over a 10-year period, based on two waves of a Norwegian survey, between retiring and continuously working blue-collar versus white-collar workers (n = 1,263, Mage = 56.58). Latent change score models showed that neuroticism and openness declined in the sample, but to a comparable degree in all groups. We further found differences in baseline personality traits between blue-collar workers and white-collar workers, as well as between those retiring and not retiring, implying selection into retirement by personality traits. Item level analyses showed declines in some items. We discuss theoretical and methodological implications of our results in light of previous ambiguous findings and emphasize the possible heterogeneity across retirees. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The Risks of Experiencing Severe Loneliness Across Middle and Late Adulthood.

OBJECTIVES: From a theoretical point of view, older adults may not necessarily face a greater risk of becoming lonely than middle-aged adults but are more likely at a disadvantage in fighting loneliness. Therefore, in this study, we differentiate between the risk of becoming lonely and the risk of remaining lonely. METHODS: A large longitudinal data set representative of the German noninstitutionalized population from 40 to 85 years of age (N = 15,408; 49% female participants) was used in the analysis. Lagged logistic regression models were estimated to investigate the effect of earlier experiences of severe loneliness on the risk of being lonely after three years across middle age and late adulthood. Individual differences in health, views on aging, and social activities were taken into account to explore their role in age differences in the risk of remaining lonely. RESULTS: The analysis revealed marginal age differences in the risk of becoming lonely but a marked age gradient regarding the risk of remaining lonely. Lonely older adults who were older than 75 years of age were more likely to remain lonely after three years than lonely middle-aged adults. Controlling for individual differences in health, views on aging as social loss, and social activities accounted for this age difference. DISCUSSION: Interventions against loneliness may prioritize older age groups because losses in capacities, shifts in motivations, and a degraded opportunity structure render it increasingly less likely that older adults leave a state of loneliness on their own accord.

Historical and Cross-Country Differences in Life Satisfaction Across Retirement in Germany and Switzerland From 2000 to 2019.

OBJECTIVES: Recent trends, such as changes in pension systems or cohort differences in individual resources, have altered the face of retirement transitions. Little is known about how these trends have affected older people's life satisfaction around retirement age in the past decades. In this study, we investigated how levels and changes in life satisfaction before and after retirement changed over historical time in Germany and Switzerland. METHODS: We used longitudinal data from the German Socioeconomic Panel Study and the Swiss Household Panel (SHP) from 2000 to 2019. Level, preretirement change, and short- and long-term change in life satisfaction (0-10) after retirement were predicted by year of retirement (2001-2019) in a multigroup piecewise growth curve model. RESULTS: We found improvements in levels of life satisfaction and preretirement changes in life satisfaction with historical time in both countries. Furthermore, we found that unlike in Switzerland, short-time changes in life satisfaction across retirement improved over historical time in Germany. DISCUSSION: Our findings imply that life satisfaction trajectories around retirement age have improved over the last 20 years. These findings may be explained by general improvements in the health and psychosocial functioning of older people. More research is needed to show for whom these improvements are stronger or weaker and if they will be maintained in a changing retirement landscape.

Middle-aged and older adults' psychosocial functioning trajectories before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence for multidirectional trends.

So far little is known with regard to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on changes in psychosocial functioning of middle-aged and older adults across multiple indicators, interindividual differences in these changes, as well as the extent to which pandemic-related changes are temporary or not. We investigate different domains of psychosocial functioning (views on aging: attitude toward own aging [ATOA] and subjective age; subjective well-being: life satisfaction and depressive symptoms; health: self-rated health) across up to 7 years (prepandemic measurement occasions: 2014 and 2017; peri-pandemic measurement occasions: Summer 2020 and Winter 2020/2021) among middle-aged and older adults (n = 10,856; Mage in 2014 = 64.3 years, SD = 11.58), based on data of the German Ageing Survey. Longitudinal multilevel regression models revealed that mean-level change toward more negative ATOA over time was aggravated by an additional shift toward more pessimistic ATOA in Summer 2020. In contrast, the mean-level change toward older subjective ages over time was interrupted by a shift toward younger subjective ages in Summer 2020. This shift was more pronounced among chronologically younger individuals. Depressive symptoms remained on average stable over time, but there was a temporary increase in Summer 2020. No pandemic-related change was observed for life satisfaction and self-rated health. Our findings suggest that different psychosocial functioning indicators reveal a different susceptibility to "COVID-19 effects," but all changes were temporary, potentially reflecting processes of adaptation. We discuss our results in the context of established theories, such as socioemotional selectivity theory or set-point theory of well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Longitudinal associations of volunteering, grandparenting, and family care with processing speed: A gender perspective on prosocial activity and cognitive aging in the second half of life.

An active lifestyle has been associated with better cognitive performance in many studies. However, most studies have focused on leisure activities or paid work, with less consideration of the kind of prosocial activities, many people engage in, including volunteering, grandparenting, and family care. In the present study, based on four waves of the German Ageing Survey (N = 6,915, aged 40-85 at baseline), we used parallel growth curves to investigate the longitudinal association of level and change in volunteering, grandparenting, and family care with level and change in processing speed. Given the gendered nature of engagement in these activities over the life span, we tested for gender differences in the associations. Only volunteering was reliably associated with higher speed of processing at baseline, no consistent longitudinal associations were found. Our results show that although prosocial activities are of great societal importance, expectations of large rewards in terms of cognitive health may be exaggerated. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Retirement and Sexual Satisfaction.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Although interest in sexuality in older age has increased over the last decades, few studies have focused on longitudinal change in sexual satisfaction around retirement age. In the present study, we studied change in sexual satisfaction across retirement in a sample of Swedish older adults with a partner. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Our analyses were based on n = 759 participants (359 male, 400 female) from the longitudinal Health, Aging, and Retirement Transitions in Sweden study. For this study, we used 5 waves spanning over a period of 4 years. RESULTS: On average, sexual satisfaction did not change significantly before retirement, but decreased after retirement. Interestingly, women showed higher sexual satisfaction than men, as well as a more positive development of both pre- and postretirement sexual satisfaction. Individuals with higher relationship satisfaction had a higher sexual satisfaction until retirement, but their sexual satisfaction also decreased faster after retirement, whereas those with lower relationship satisfaction showed a stable but lower sexual satisfaction. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: Sexual satisfaction can change in the retirement transition in several important ways and further studies on the impact of retirement and other late-life stage transitions are warranted.

Subjective well-being across the retirement transition-Historical differences and the role of perceived control.

Given substantial cohort differences in psychosocial functioning, for example in perceived control, and ongoing pension reforms, the context of retirement has changed over the last decades. However, there is limited research on the consequences of such developments on historical differences in subjective well-being (SWB) in the retirement transition. In the present study, we investigated historical differences in change in life satisfaction and positive affect across the retirement transition. We further included perceived control as a predictor of change in well-being. Analyses were based on subsamples of retirees among three nationally representative samples of the German Ageing Survey (1996; 2002; 2008) and their respective follow-ups 6 years later. Results showed historical improvements in preretirement positive affect (i.e., later samples had higher preretirement levels). Contrastingly, earlier samples showed a larger increase in positive affect across the retirement transition compared to later samples. No historical differences were found in life satisfaction. Perceived control showed no historical improvement and did not seem to contribute to historical differences in subjective well-being. Nevertheless, we found that the association of perceived control and positive affect increased over historical time. The results showed that the historical context seems to play a role in the experience of retirement, and that it is helpful to distinguish between cognitive-evaluative and affective components of well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Do neuroticism and conscientiousness interact with health conditions in predicting 4-year changes in self-rated health among Swedish older adults?

Health conditions such as higher disease burden, pain, or lower functional health are associated with poorer self-rated health (SRH) in older age. Poorer SRH, in turn, is a predictor of morbidity and mortality. Personality traits are associated with SRH as well, but little is known about the interaction of personality and health conditions. In the present preregistered analyses, we used five annual waves of the Health, Aging and Retirement Transitions in Sweden (HEARTS) study (N = 5,823, M age = 63.09, SD = 2.01) to investigate the associations of personality (neuroticism and conscientiousness) and physical health indices (disease burden, pain, and functional limitations) with levels and change in SRH. In addition, we tested Personality × Health interaction effects. We found that higher neuroticism and lower conscientiousness were related to lower levels of SRH, but not to change in SRH after controlling for the health indices. Personality did not moderate the effect of health indices on levels and change in SRH. Exploratory analyses showed that high scores of neuroticism may augment the association of increased pain and functional limitations with declines in SRH. Additional studies with other samples are needed to test if this result can be replicated. Taken together, our findings provide only weak evidence for interaction effects of personality and physical health factors on SRH. More research is needed to understand the interplay of physical and psychological factors in shaping individual SRH. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Helping out or helping yourself? Volunteering and life satisfaction across the retirement transition.

It has been suggested that volunteering leads to increases in well-being, particularly in older and retiring adults, and that volunteering could be used as a public health intervention to increase well-being. However, the causal relationship has been questioned. We investigated the association between voluntary work and life satisfaction in a bivariate dual-change score model, using 4 years of longitudinal data from 1,123 participants from the Health, Aging and Retirement Transitions in Sweden (HEARTS) study. Both the frequency of volunteering and the level of life satisfaction increased across the retirement transition. However, baseline life satisfaction and volunteering were only marginally associated. Further, the coupling parameters suggest that higher levels of volunteering were followed by decreases in life satisfaction and that higher levels of life satisfaction were followed by increases in volunteering. These findings suggest that increasing levels of volunteering might not be a fruitful strategy for improving life satisfaction for all older adults-if people engage too much in voluntary work, it might even be detrimental for their life satisfaction. More research is needed to better understand when and for whom increased levels of volunteering might have positive effects on life satisfaction. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Psychological Health in the Retirement Transition: Rationale and First Findings in the HEalth, Ageing and Retirement Transitions in Sweden (HEARTS) Study.

From an aging research and life-course perspective, the transition to retirement marks a significant life-event and provides a unique opportunity to study psychological health and coping during a period of substantial change in everyday life. The aim of the present paper is to: (a) outline the rationale of the HEalth, Ageing and Retirement Transitions in Sweden (HEARTS) study, (b) describe the study sample, and (c) to present some initial results from the two first waves regarding the association between retirement status and psychological health. The HEARTS study is designed to annually study psychological health in the years before and following retirement, and to examine change and stability patterns related to the retirement event. Among a representative Swedish population-based sample of 14,990 individuals aged 60-66 years, 5,913 completed the baseline questionnaire in 2015. The majority of the participants (69%) completed a web-based survey, and the rest (31%) completed a paper version. The baseline HEARTS sample represents the general population well in terms of gender and age, but is more highly educated. Cross-sectional findings from the first wave showed that retired individuals demonstrated better psychological health compared to those who were still working. Longitudinal results from the first and second waves showed that individuals who retired between waves showed more positive changes in psychological health compared with those still working or previously retired.