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 The heightened level of enjoyment lasts at least a year after a
retiree stops working full time, researchers report in the journal
Age and Ageing.
There is conflicting evidence about changes in enjoyment and
happiness when people retire, coauthor Tim Olds of the University of
South Australia told Reuters Health by email.
On the one hand, people may lose social connections and their sense
of purpose in life when they retire, he said. On the other hand,
retirement offers a chance to do the things you've always wanted to
do.
“We found that you're likely to be happier when you retire,” he told
Reuters Health in an email.
That’s not because retirees spend more time doing things they like
and less time doing things they don't like, Olds noted.
Rather, it could be that retirees get more pleasure from even
mundane daily activities “because they have more autonomy and
time-flexibility,” Olds said.
The 124 study participants all intended to retire within three to
six months. The group was roughly half men and half women, with an
average age of 62.
At the start of the study and again three, six and 12 months
afterward, Olds and his colleagues asked participants to recall
their activities in the last 24 hours. They grouped activities into
eight categories: physical activity, social, self-care, sleep,
screen time, quiet time, transport, work and chores.
Participants also completed surveys about their health, wellbeing,
sleep quality and loneliness.
Compared to pre-retirement levels, average enjoyment ratings were
significantly higher throughout the study.
“Changes were partly due to shifts towards more enjoyable activities
. . . but were mainly due to retirees getting more enjoyment out of
doing the same activities post-retirement,” the authors found.
Overall, enjoyment ratings were associated with wellbeing and better
sleep quality.
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Physical activity and social activity had the highest enjoyment
ratings while work and chores had the lowest, according to the
report.
Still, participants who continued to work part-time after retirement
reported that their enjoyment of it increased substantially, the
authors noted.
“People have a different experience when working after retirement,”
said Kenneth Shultz, a social gerontologist and professor of
psychology at California State University in San Bernardino.
“You don’t have to deal with the pressure of a career job, and
people tend to not be emotionally invested in it,” said Shultz, who
was not part of the study.
For those on the edge of retirement, however, work appears to be an
unpleasurable drag, according to Olds and colleagues.
During those last few months before retirement, they write,
“enjoyment decreased when the trip to work began, was momentarily
elevated during work breaks, and rose again at the end of the
working day.”
The study participants, they conclude, “were . . . working for the
‘eternal weekend’ of retirement.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/28NKanG Age and Ageing, online June 7, 2016.
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