Adjusting to Retirement: Considerations for Counselors

✍ Scribed by Bill J. LaBauve; Chester R. Robinson

• Publisher: American Counseling Association
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 589 KB
• Volume: 1
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1524-6817
• DOI: 10.1002/j.2161-0029.1999.tb00078.x

✦ Synopsis

The purpose of this article is to examine retirement while focusing on issues older adultsface in adjusting to retirement and to suggest implicationsfor counseling people who are making this transition.

During the past decade, the number of workers retiring each year has increased dramatically. According to Feldman (1994), more than 2.5 million people retire each year, and the proportion of those under the age of 65 who retire is increasing. He also stated that by the year 2000, World War I1 "baby boomers" will be reaching an age at which retirement becomes a viable option. Recent research by the American Association of Retired Persons (AAm, 1992) estimated that more than 28 million people are considered to be "older persons," or persons over 60 years of age. Furthermore, the AARP estimated an increase in this population to about 65 million by the year 2030 compared with 25 million in 1980. This increase in the older population is based on a longer life expectancy. In addition, if one lives long enough to retire around age 65, it could be assumed that he or she will live another 15 to 20 years afier retirement (Hanisch, 1994).

Retirement involves a transition that may be viewed not only as a change in roles, but as an expansion and redefinition of previous career roles. Because career roles are associated with status, identity, power, and money, this transition could be seen as a potential period of crisis (Jenson-Scott, 1993). Myers (1992) stated that "the loss of employment at retirement can be equally as devastating to the older individual as job loss at any time in life" (p. 285). Retirement also requires an adjustment to increased lei-Bill]. LaBauwe is a uisitingprofissor of counsucling in the Departmrnt of Counseling at Florida GulJCoart University in Ft. Myers, Florih.