%0 Journal Article %J Journal of Aging and Health %D 2019 %T From Snapshots to Movies: The Association Between Retirement Sequences and Aging Trajectories in Limitations to Perform Activities of Daily Living. %A Azar, Ariel %A Ursula M. Staudinger %A Slachevsky, Andrea %A Madero-Cabib, Ignacio %A Calvo, Esteban %K Activities of Daily Living %K Disabilities %K Policy %K Retirement Planning and Satisfaction %X

OBJECTIVE: This study analyzes the dynamic association between retirement sequences and activities of daily living (ADLs) trajectories between ages 60 and 70.

METHOD: Retirement sequences previously established for 7,880 older Americans from the Health and Retirement Study were used in hierarchical linear and propensity score full matching models, analyzing their association with ADL trajectories.

RESULTS: Sequences of partial retirement from full- or part-time jobs showed higher baseline and slower decline in ADL than sequences characterized by early labor force disengagement.

DISCUSSION: The conventional model in which people completely retire from a full-time job at normative ages and the widely promoted new conventional model of late retirement are both associated with better functioning than early labor force disengagement. But unconventional models, where older adults keep partially engaged with the labor force are also significantly associated with better functioning. These findings call attention to more research on potential avenues to simultaneously promote productive engagement and health later in life.

%B Journal of Aging and Health %V 31 %P 293-321 %G eng %N 2 %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29952242?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1177/0898264318782096 %0 Journal Article %J Gerontologist %D 2018 %T Retirement sequences of older Americans: Moderately destandardized and highly stratified across gender, class, and race. %A Calvo, Esteban %A Madero-Cabib, Ignacio %A Ursula M. Staudinger %K Gender Differences %K Racial/ethnic differences %K Retirement Planning and Satisfaction %K Women and Minorities %X

Purpose of the Study: A destandardization of labor-force patterns revolving around retirement has been observed in recent literature. It is unclear, however, to which degree and of which kind. This study looked at sequences rather than individual statuses or transitions and argued that differentiating older Americans' retirement sequences by type, order, and timing and considering gender, class, and race differences yields a less destandardized picture.

Design and Methods: Sequence analysis was employed to analyze panel data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) for 7,881 individuals observed 6 consecutive times between ages 60-61 and 70-71.

Results: As expected, types of retirement sequences were identified that cannot be subsumed under the conventional model of complete retirement from full-time employment around age 65. However, these retirement sequences were not entirely destandardized, as some irreversibility and age-grading persisted. Further, the degree of destandardization varied along gender, class, and race. Unconventional sequences were archetypal for middle-level educated individuals and Blacks. Also, sequences for women and individuals with lower education showed more unemployment and part-time jobs, and less age-grading.

Implications: A sequence-analytic approach that models group differences uncovers misjudgments about the degree of destandardization of retirement sequences. When a continuous process is represented as individual transitions, the overall pattern of retirement sequences gets lost and appears destandardized. These patterns get further complicated by differences in social structures by gender, class, and race in ways that seem to reproduce advantages that men, more highly educated individuals, and Whites enjoy in numerous areas over the life course.

%B Gerontologist %V 58 %P 1166-1176 %G eng %N 6 %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28586409?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1093/geront/gnx052