Happily ever after? An exploration of retirement expectations

The dimensions of expectations for retirement, and their relationship with gender, current work attitudes, and current leisure experiences were invest igated in a British and an Australian sample. Eighty-three Britains and 100 Australians, in paid employment, aged 40 and above, completed ct questionn aire that included measures of current work and leisure experience, prefere nces for preretirement education, and a newly developed "Retirement Expecta tion Inventory" (REI) based on the four modes of retirement experience repo rted by Hornstein and Wapner (1985). A factor analysis of the REI confirmed the four dimensions of Transition to Rest, New Beginning, Continuity, and Imposed Disruption. The predominant expectation was that retirement would b e a New Beginning, with no significant gender differences. As predicted, hi gh personal job involvement, but not high general work involvement, was sig nificantly associated with the expectation of Imposed Disruption, as was an unsatisfactory current leisure experience. The most popular content areas for preretirement education were financial management, hobbies, and physica l health. These results are discussed, and a number of implications for pre retirement education arising from the results are noted.