Hostname: page-component-669899f699-swprf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-24T13:46:56.510Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Gender differences in the mechanism of involuntary retirement affecting loneliness through vulnerability and coping resources

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 June 2022

Oejin Shin Open the ORCID record for Oejin Shin [Opens in a new window] ,
Sojung Park Open the ORCID record for Sojung Park [Opens in a new window] ,
Hyunjoo Lee  and
Ji Young Kang Open the ORCID record for Ji Young Kang [Opens in a new window]
Oejin Shin
Affiliation:
School of Social Work at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA
Sojung Park
Affiliation:
Brown School of Social Work at Washington University, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA
Hyunjoo Lee*
Affiliation:
Department of Social Welfare at Daegu University, Gyeongsan-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Republic of Korea
Ji Young Kang
Affiliation:
Department of Social Welfare at Chungnam National University, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
*
*Corresponding author. Email: hjlee7723@naver.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Involuntary retirement is associated with diminished mental health. However, little is known about the mechanism that connects involuntary retirees' coping resources to their loneliness. Gender patterns in the mechanism of involuntary retirement are also unclear. This study examines gender differences in the link between involuntary retirement and loneliness through secondary stressors (material and physical vulnerability) and coping resources (social support and self-efficacy). Two-step structural equation modelling was used to examine the effects of several mediators. For both men and women, involuntary retirement was associated with increased loneliness in terms of physical vulnerability and social efficacy. We found the female involuntary retirees are facing loneliness with multiple mediating factors. The layers of experiencing loneliness among female retirees are (a) directly from involuntary retirement; (b) indirectly from involuntary retirement and secondary stressors (material vulnerability and physical vulnerability); and (c) indirectly from involuntary retirement, secondary stressors (material vulnerability and physical vulnerability) and coping resources. The specific gender differences in the complex mechanism leading to later-year loneliness among the retirees may inform the interventions and policies that mitigate the disadvantages among involuntarily retired older adults in the United States of America.

Keywords

involuntary retirementlonelinessmechanismphantom modelsocial supportself-efficacygender difference
Type
Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 44 , Issue 2 , February 2024 , pp. 247 - 268
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Alley, DE, Soldo, BJ, Pagán, JA, McCabe, J, DeBlois, M, Field, SH, Asch, DA and Cannuscio, C (2009) Material resources and population health: disadvantages in health care, housing, and food among adults over 50 years of age. American Journal of Public Health 99, S693–S701.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Avison, W (2016) Mental health. In Shanahan, MJ, Mortimer, JT and Johnson, MK (eds). Handbook of the Life Course (Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research). Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.Google Scholar
Baker, E, Pham, NTA, Daniel, L and Bentley, R (2020) New evidence on mental health and housing affordability in cities: a quantile regression approach. Cities 96, 102455.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bandura, A (1997) Self-efficacy: The Exercise of Control. New York, NY: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Bandura, A, Caprara, GV, Barbaranelli, C, Gerbino, M and Pastorelli, C (2003) Role of affective self-regulatory efficacy in diverse spheres of psychosocial functioning. Child Development 74, 769–782.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bertoni, M, Maggi, S and Weber, G (2018) Work, retirement, and muscle strength loss in old age. Health Economics 27, 115–128.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bishu, SG and Headley, AM (2020) Equal employment opportunity: women bureaucrats in male-dominated professions. Public Administration Review 80, 1063–1074.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blanch, A (2016) Social support as a mediator between job control and psychological strain. Social Science & Medicine 157, 148–155.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blau, FD and Winkler, AE (2017) Women, Work, and Family (No. w23644). Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boni-Saenz, AA (2020) Age, equality, and vulnerability. Theoretical Inquiries in Law 21, 161–185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, J, Dynan, K and Figinski, T (2019) The risk of financial hardship in retirement: a cohort analysis. Wharton Pension Research Council Working Papers 532. Available at https://repository.upenn.edu/prc_papers/532.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burris, M, Kihlstrom, L, Arce, KS, Prendergast, K, Dobbins, J, McGrath, E, … Himmelgreen, D (2021) Food insecurity, loneliness, and social support among older adults. Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition 16, 29–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cahill, KE, Giandrea, MD and Quinn, JF (2013) Retirement patterns and the macroeconomy, 1992–2010: the prevalence and determinants of bridge jobs, phased retirement, and reentry among three recent cohorts of older Americans. The Gerontologist 55, 384–403.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Calvo, E, Haverstick, K and Sass, SA (2009) Gradual retirement, sense of control, and retirees’ happiness. Research on Aging 31, 112–135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caprara, GV, Regalia, C and Bandura, A (2002) Longitudinal impact of perceived self-regulatory efficacy on violent conduct. European Psychologist 7, 63–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carmel, S (2019) Health and well-being in late life: gender differences worldwide. Frontiers in Medicine 6, 218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carr, DC, Moen, P, Perry Jenkins, M and Smyer, M (2018) Postretirement life satisfaction and financial vulnerability: the moderating role of control. Journals of Gerontology: Series B 75, 849–860.Google Scholar
Cole, DA and Maxwell, SE (2003) Testing mediational models with longitudinal data: questions and tips in the use of structural equation modeling. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 112, 558.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Craig, TKJ (1996) Adversity and depression. International Review of Psychiatry 8, 341–353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crystal, S, Shea, D and Krishnaswami, S (1992) Educational attainment, occupational history, and stratification: determinants of later-life economic outcomes. Journal of Gerontology 47, S213–S221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denier, N, Clouston, SA, Richards, M and Hofer, SM (2017) Retirement and cognition: a life course view. Advances in Life Course Research 31, 11–21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dingemans, E and Henkens, K (2014) Involuntary retirement, bridge employment, and satisfaction with life: a longitudinal investigation. Journal of Organizational Behavior 35, 575–591.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doba, N, Tokuda, Y, Saiki, K, Kushiro, T, Hirano, M, Matsubara, Y and Hinohara, S (2016) Assessment of self-efficacy and its relationship with frailty in the elderly. Internal Medicine 55, 2785–2792.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dushi, I, Iams, HM and Trenkamp, B (2017) The importance of social security benefits to the income of the aged population. Social Security Bulletin 77, 1.Google Scholar
Elder, GH Jr and Shanahan, MJ. (2006) The life course and human development. In Damon, W and Lerner, RM (eds). Handbook of Child Psychology: Theoretical Models of Human Development, vol. 1, 6th edn, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, pp. 665–715.Google Scholar
Ellis, CD, Munnell, AH and Eschtruth, AD (2014) Falling Short: The Coming Retirement Crisis and What to Do About It. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fiori, KL, McIlvane, JM, Brown, EE and Antonucci, TC (2006) Social relations and depressive symptomatology: self-efficacy as a mediator. Aging & Mental Health 10, 227–239.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Flippen, C and Tienda, M (2000) Pathways to retirement: patterns of labor force participation and labor market exit among the pre-retirement population by race, Hispanic origin, and sex. Journals of Gerontology: Series B 55, S14–S27.Google ScholarPubMed
Fry, PS and Debats, DL (2002) Self-efficacy beliefs as predictors of loneliness and psychological distress in older adults. International Journal of Aging and Human Development 55, 233–269.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
George, LK (2011) Social factors, depression, and aging. In Binstock, RH and George, LK (eds). Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences. London: Elsevier, pp. 149–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grether, T, Sowislo, JF and Wiese, BS (2018) Top-down or bottom-up? Prospective relations between general and domain-specific self-efficacy beliefs during a work–family transition. Personality and Individual Differences 121, 131–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grundy, E (2006) Ageing and vulnerable elderly people: European perspectives. Ageing & Society 26, 105–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gunnarsson, E (2002) The vulnerable life course: poverty and social assistance among middle-aged and older women. Ageing & Society 22, 709–728.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hajek, A and König, HH (2016) Longitudinal predictors of functional impairment in older adults in Europe – evidence from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. PLOS ONE 11, e0146967.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hartmann, H and English, A (2009) Older women's retirement security: a primer. Journal of Women, Politics and Policy 30, 109–140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawkley, LC, Hughes, ME, Waite, LJ, Masi, CM, Thisted, RA and Cacioppo, JT (2008) From social structural factors to perceptions of relationship quality and loneliness: the Chicago Health, Aging, and Social Relations Study. Journals of Gerontology: Series B 63, S375–S384.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Henkens, K, van Solinge, H and Gallo, WT (2008) Effects of retirement voluntariness on changes in smoking, drinking and physical activity among Dutch older workers. European Journal of Public Health 18, 644–649.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hershey, DA and Henkens, K (2013) Impact of different types of retirement transitions on perceived satisfaction with life. The Gerontologist 54, 232–244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herzog, A, House, JS and Morgan, JN (1991) Relation of work and retirement to health and well-being in older age. Psychology and Aging 6, 202.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Higgins, ET (1987) Self-discrepancy: a theory relating self and affect. Psychological Review 94, 319.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holt-Lunstad, J, Smith, TB, Baker, M, Harris, T and Stephenson, D (2015) Loneliness and social isolation as risk factors for mortality: a meta-analytic review. Perspectives on Psychological Science 10, 227–237.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hu, LT and Bentler, PM (1999) Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal 6, 1–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kang, J and Chung, S (2017) Trajectories of experiences on material hardship among mid and old age by age group. Korean Journal of Social Welfare Research 55, 5–34.Google Scholar
Kim, ES and Kawachi, I (2017) Perceived neighborhood social cohesion and preventive healthcare use. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 53, e35–e40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kim, A and Waldorf, BS (2019) Baby boomers’ paths into retirement. In Franklin, R (ed). Population, Place, and Spatial Interaction. Singapore: Springer, pp. 225–247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
König, S, Lindwall, M and Johansson, B (2019) Involuntary and delayed retirement as a possible health risk for lower educated retirees. Journal of Population Ageing. 12, 475.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lachman, ME and Weaver, SL (1998) Sociodemographic variations in the sense of control by domain: findings from the MacArthur studies of midlife. Psychology and Aging 13, 553.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lakey, B and Orehek, E (2011) Relational regulation theory: a new approach to explain the link between perceived social support and mental health. Psychological Review 118, 482.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lambert, SJ, Henly, JR and Kim, J (2019) Precarious work schedules as a source of economic insecurity and institutional distrust. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 5, 218–257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levy, H (2009) Income, material hardship, and the use of public programs among the elderly. Michigan Retirement Research Center, Ann Arbor, MI, Research Paper WP208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, L, Gou, Z and Zuo, J (2016) Social support mediates loneliness and depression in elderly people. Journal of Health Psychology 21, 750–758.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lu, W, Benson, R, Glaser, K, Platts, LG, Corna, LM, Worts, D, … Sacker, A (2017) Relationship between employment histories and frailty trajectories in later life: evidence from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health 71, 439–445.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Macho, S and Ledermann, T (2011) Estimating, testing, and comparing specific effects in structural equation models: the phantom model approach. Psychological Methods 16, 34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maciejewski, PK, Prigerson, HG and Mazure, CM (2000) Self-efficacy as a mediator between stressful life events and depressive symptoms: differences based on history of prior depression. British Journal of Psychiatry 176, 373–378.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mather, M, Jacobsen, LA and Pollard, KM (2015) Aging in the United States. Washington, DC: Population Reference Bureau.Google Scholar
Mendes de Leon, CF, Cagney, KA, Bienias, JL, Barnes, LL, Skarupski, KA, Scherr, PA and Evans, DA (2009) Neighborhood social cohesion and disorder in relation to walking in community-dwelling older adults: a multilevel analysis. Journal of Aging and Health 21, 155–171.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moen, P (1992) Women's Two Roles: A Contemporary Dilemma. New York, NY: Praeger.Google Scholar
Nikitin, J and Freund, AM (2018) Feeling loved and integrated or lonely and rejected in everyday life: the role of age and social motivation. Developmental Psychology 54, 1186.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Noh, JW, Kwon, YD, Lee, LJ, Oh, IH and Kim, J (2019) Gender differences in the impact of retirement on depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older adults: a propensity score matching approach. PLoS ONE 14, e0212607.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ong, AD, Uchino, BN and Wethington, E (2016) Loneliness and health in older adults: a mini-review and synthesis. Gerontology 62, 443–449.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Park, H and Kang, MY (2016) Effects of voluntary/involuntary retirement on their own and spouses’ depressive symptoms. Comprehensive Psychiatry 66, 1–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pearlin, LI (2010) The life course and the stress process: some conceptual comparisons. Journals of Gerontology: Series B 65, 207–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearlin, LI and Skaff, MM (1996) Stress and the life course: a paradigmatic alliance. The Gerontologist 36, 239–247.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pietilä, I, Calasanti, T, Ojala, H and King, N (2020) Is retirement a crisis for men? Class and adjustment to retirement. Men and Masculinities 23, 306–325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pillemer, SC and Holtzer, R (2016) The differential relationships of dimensions of perceived social support with cognitive function among older adults. Aging & Mental Health 20, 727–735.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rhee, MK, Mor Barak, ME and Gallo, WT (2016) Mechanisms of the effect of involuntary retirement on older adults’ self-rated health and mental health. Journal of Gerontological Social Work 59, 35–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rico-Uribe, LA, Caballero, FF, Martín-María, N, Cabello, M, Ayuso-Mateos, JL and Miret, M (2018) Association of loneliness with all-cause mortality: a meta-analysis. PLOS ONE 13, e0190033.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rothwell, D, Khan, M and Cherney, K (2015) The Mediating Role of Financial Self-efficacy in the Financial Capability of Low-income Families. Available at https://ssrn.com/abstract=2646966.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rupert, PA, Stevanovic, P, Hartman, ERT, Bryant, FB and Miller, A (2012) Predicting work–family conflict and life satisfaction among professional psychologists. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice 43, 341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schoen, C, Doty, MM, Collins, SR and Holmgren, AL (2005) Insured but not protected: how many adults are underinsured? The experiences of adults with inadequate coverage mirror those of their uninsured peers, especially among the chronically ill. Health Affairs 24, W5-289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schönfeld, P, Brailovskaia, J, Bieda, A, Zhang, XC and Margraf, J (2016) The effects of daily stress on positive and negative mental health: mediation through self-efficacy. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology 16, 1–10.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schröder-Butterfill, E and Marianti, R (2006) A framework for understanding old-age vulnerabilities. Ageing & Society 26, 9–35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schulz, JH and Binstock, RH (2008) Aging Nation: The Economics and Politics of Growing Older in America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sheppard, FH and Wallace, DC (2018) Women's mental health after retirement. Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services 56, 37–45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shin, O, Park, S, Amano, T, Kwon, E and Kim, B (2020) Nature of retirement and loneliness: The moderating roles of social support. Journal of Applied Gerontology 39, 1292–1302.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Soman, S, Bhat, SM, Latha, KS and Praharaj, SK (2016) Gender differences in perceived social support and stressful life events in depressed patients. East Asian Archives of Psychiatry 26, 22.Google ScholarPubMed
Sonnega, A, Faul, JD, Ofstedal, MB, Langa, KM, Phillips, JW and Weir, DR (2014) Cohort profile: the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). International Journal of Epidemiology 43, 576–585.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Steptoe, A, Shankar, A, Demakakos, P and Wardle, J (2013) Social isolation, loneliness, and all-cause mortality in older men and women. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110, 5797–5801.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sung, J and Qiu, Q (2020) The impact of housing prices on health in the United States before, during, and after the great recession. Southern Economic Journal 86, 910–940.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swan, GE, Dame, A and Carmelli, D (1991) Involuntary retirement, Type A behavior, and current functioning in elderly men: 27-year follow-up of the Western Collaborative Group Study. Psychology and Aging 6, 384.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Szinovacz, ME and Davey, A (2005) Predictors of perceptions of involuntary retirement. The Gerontologist 45, 36–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tang, F and Burr, JA (2015) Revisiting the pathways to retirement: a latent structure model of the dynamics of transition from work to retirement. Ageing & Society 35, 1739–1770.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, T, Mitchell, JA, Johnson-Lawrence, V, Watkins, DC and Modlin, CS Jr (2017) Self-rated health and health care access associated with African American men's health self-efficacy. American Journal of Men's Health 11, 1385–1387.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Umberson, D and Karas Montez, J (2010) Social relationships and health: a flashpoint for health policy. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 51, S54–S66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van der Heide, I, van Rijn, RM, Robroek, SJ, Burdorf, A and Proper, KI (2013) Is retirement good for your health? A systematic review of longitudinal studies. BMC Public Health 13, 1180.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van Solinge, H (2007) Health change in retirement: a longitudinal study among older workers in the Netherlands. Research on Aging 29, 225–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Virokannas, E, Liuski, S and Kuronen, M (2020) The contested concept of vulnerability – a literature review. European Journal of Social Work. 23, 327–339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Welch, DC and West, RL (1995) Self-efficacy and mastery: its application to issues of environmental control, cognition, and aging. Developmental Review 15, 150–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
West, RL, Welch, DC and Knabb, PD (2002) Gender and aging: spatial self-efficacy and location recall. Basic and Applied Social Psychology 24, 71–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xie, H, Peng, W, Yang, Y, Zhang, D, Sun, Y, Wu, M and Su, Y (2018) Social support as a mediator of physical disability and depressive symptoms in Chinese elderly. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing 32, 256–262.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yang, Y and Lee, LC (2010) Dynamics and heterogeneity in the process of human frailty and aging: evidence from the US older adult population. Journals of Gerontology: Series B 65, 246–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zebhauser, A, Baumert, J, Emeny, RT, Ronel, J, Peters, A and Ladwig, KH (2015) What prevents old people living alone from feeling lonely? Findings from the KORA-Age-study. Aging & Mental Health 19, 773–780.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed