(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Eby, Rachel E., author; Conner, Bradley T., advisor; Fisher, Gwenith G., committee member; Diehl, Manfred, committee member
Retirement is an important life event to study at present, because more people are entering their retirement years and are spending more time in retirement than ever before in our nation’s history. Historically, research has shown mixed results on effects of retirement that are not accurately explained by any one theory. These mixed results suggest the possibility of individual differences in retirement adjustment that may not be accounted for with aggregated data. Wang, Henkens, and Shultz (2011) proposed a comprehensive framework of retirement adjustment: the resource-based dynamic perspective, which reasons that adjustment is influenced by antecedent variables, via level of resources possessed by the individual at a given time. The current study seeks to assess the relation between personality as an antecedent variable and retirement adjustment in a longitudinal analysis of participants from the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study. Resources are also modeled as covariates in the analysis. Results should be interpreted with caution due to limitations in model fit. Results from the Growth Mixture Model (GMM) revealed two classes of retirement trajectories and certain personality traits were significant as predictors for these trajectories. Implications for both research and practice are discussed.
