Work After Retirement: An Investigation into Some Psychologically Relevant Variables1

Information obtained from a highly selected group of healthy, financially secure male university faculty retirees indicates that nearly all work for pay after retiring. Continued working does not seem to be contingent upon the ready availability of jobs, but is related to a personal dislike of retirement, intending to work after that event, active pre-retirement involvement in work, and the presence of younger friends who are working. We have suggested that work after retirement can be conceptualized as due to a mutually reinforcing interaction among the variables examined.