Late Adulthood: Meaning, Relationships, and Retirement

This is Unit Sixteen, part two, on loneliness, retirement, where older adults live, elder abuse, and aging well. Part one closed on kinds of social support. Part two opens with loneliness, then turns to retirement, and to where and how older adults live. Carry one question through this part: is retirement good for you? Work gives structure, stimulation and identity; retirement takes them away and gives time back. At the entry that weighs retirement directly, the part's answer is better mental health for most, when the retirement is chosen. By the end you will be able to state what research finds about retirement, and why selection complicates it. To name Atchley's phases of retirement. To tell ADLs from IADLs, and match a need to a housing setting. To say who most often abuses older adults. And to name Baltes's three strategies of successful aging.

Five entries on loneliness and on retiring. The opening question is answered here.

Loneliness in late life.

HGD 2277 Loneliness

About a third of older adults are sometimes lonely and about five percent most of the time, and loneliness tends to rise in late life, especially at low income. It correlates with heart disease, mental-health problems and dementia, probably in both directions. Pandemic isolation hit older adults hard, though many coped well.

Deciding to retire.

HGD 2278 Deciding to Retire

The average US retirement age is about sixty-four, with twelve to fifteen years of life expectancy beyond it, and many adults over fifty worry about having enough saved; a sixty-two-year-old weighs health, savings and a spouse's plans before setting a date. A nineteen eighty-six amendment to the Age Discrimination in Employment Act eliminated mandatory retirement for most workers.

The payoff: is retirement good for you?

HGD 2279 Is Retirement Good for You?

Retirement, permanently leaving the workforce, is common but not universal, and its effects on well-being are debated. Work offers cognitive stimulation, social ties and identity, and some studies have observed cognitive decline shortly after retirement. Retirement offers relief from job strain and time for renewed exploration. A review of twenty-two longitudinal studies found that most retirees report better mental health after retiring, with less depression, anxiety and stress. Circumstances matter: in a large European panel study, retiring for positive, chosen reasons reduced depression, while retiring under negative circumstances worsened it. That answers this part's question. Selection is the key research problem: people do not retire at random, and poor health can force early retirement, so retirees in poor health may fare worse because of the illness, not the retirement.

The phases of retirement.

HGD 2280 Phases of Retirement

Atchley described retirement as a process with phases. In the remote pre-retirement phase, people fantasize about what they will do; in the immediate pre-retirement phase, they make concrete plans. Then comes retirement itself. In the honeymoon phase, retirees travel and take up activities they could not do while working. In the disenchantment phase, some experience an emotional letdown. In the reorientation phase, they adjust by making calmer plans and settling into a routine. A retiree cruises in her first year, feels flat by the second, then builds a weekly routine of volunteering and swimming. Not everyone goes through every phase; retirement is a process, not a single event.

Phased retirement, and bridge jobs.

HGD 2281 Phased Retirement and Bridge Employment

Phased retirement is leaving work gradually through reduced hours or contract work; bridge employment is a different job after retiring, in the same field or a new one, like a retired engineer training new hires two days a week. Both benefit employers, who keep experienced trainers, and workers, who keep income with lighter loads.

Four entries on money and meaning in retirement, at home and abroad.

Volunteering in retirement.

HGD 2282 Volunteering in Retirement

About one in four retirees volunteer, a share similar to younger adults, but they give almost forty percent more hours, like a retired accountant preparing tax returns for low-income neighbours each spring. Volunteering is commonest early in retirement and fades as work-based ties lapse.

Pensions, and 401(k) plans.

HGD 2283 Pensions and 401(k) Plans

A pension plan is an employer-managed fund paying guaranteed lifetime income, the employer bearing the investment risk; it predominated until the nineteen seventies. A four-oh-one-k plan, created under a nineteen seventy-eight tax law, is employee-funded and portable, with no guaranteed income. Nearly half the US workforce lacks an employer plan; the course gives no financial advice.

Other barriers to retirement.

HGD 2284 Other Barriers to Retirement

Beyond finances, psychological barriers, such as fear of an occupational void and lost identity, social timing and poor health all shape retirement, as a worker may delay until her spouse retires and the youngest child is independent. Poor health can force early retirement, especially for low-income workers, and limit retirement activities.

Retirement around the world.

HGD 2285 Retirement Around the World

Retirement systems differ: South Africa pays a means-tested pension from sixty, Japan runs two public pension systems, Nepal's small allowances leave heavy reliance on family, Jamaica provides free home services for all older adults, and Canada a contribution-based pension. The course describes these systems and makes no policy comparison.

Six entries on where older adults live, who cares for them, and how care is paid for.

Aging in place.

HGD 2286 Aging in Place

Aging in place, living safely and independently at home, is what most older adults want, and it is linked to better cognition and less depression than nursing-home residence. Only about two and a half percent of those sixty-five and older live in nursing homes. The misconception is that most older people end up in nursing homes.

Activities of daily living.

HGD 2287 ADLs and IADLs

Activities of daily living are basic self-care, feeding, bathing, dressing and toileting; instrumental activities of daily living are more complex tasks: shopping, medications and finances. A woman who dresses herself but needs a daughter to manage her pills and bills needs instrumental help only. Difficulty with basic activities means help several times a day.

Caregivers.

HGD 2288 Caregivers

Most care comes from informal caregivers, spouses and adult children, and caregiving is linked to poorer health, anxiety, depression and chronic stress; in a four-year study, spousal caregivers who reported strain showed higher mortality. Women provide more, and more intense, care, and Black caregivers often report less burden, linked to positive appraisal and religious comfort.

Dementia caregiving, and home care.

HGD 2289 Dementia Caregiving and Home Care

Only about one in ten older adults receiving home care has dementia, yet dementia care takes forty-one percent of unpaid caregiving hours. Adult daycare offers supervised activity and social contact, and respite for caregivers. Home health aides report high job satisfaction but low pay, and immigrants make up about a quarter of them.

The housing continuum.

HGD 2290 The Housing Continuum

Housing for older adults runs along a continuum of care. Independent living communities are age-restricted, with maintenance handled. Congregate housing offers private units with common areas and some services, but typically no medical care. Assisted living adds meals, housekeeping and help with daily activities. Nursing homes add medical care: twenty-four-hour supervision, skilled nursing and therapy, sometimes with memory care units. Continuing care communities offer all these levels on one campus, as when a couple moves to assisted living across campus when one needs help. Many nursing-home stays are short-term rehabilitation. Exam items describe a need: medical care points to a nursing home, help with daily tasks to assisted living.

Paying for long-term care.

HGD 2291 Paying for Long-Term Care

Medicare does not typically cover long-term nursing-home care, though it may cover up to a hundred days of rehabilitation or skilled nursing, so most older adults unable to afford long-term care rely on Medicaid, which requires spending down assets. The misconception is that Medicare pays for long-term nursing-home care.

Two entries on elder abuse: what it is, and who commits it.

Elder abuse.

HGD 2292 Elder Abuse

Elder abuse is mistreatment or neglect of an older adult, including physical, sexual, emotional and financial abuse and neglect, and about one in six people aged sixty and older experienced abuse in community settings in the past year, according to the WHO. Financial abuse, taking money without knowledge or overcharging, was the most commonly reported form in one national resource-line study.

Who abuses older adults.

HGD 2293 Who Abuses Older Adults

In nearly two thousand reported cases, family members and friends or acquaintances were the most common perpetrators of elder abuse, and risk rises when the older adult depends on the perpetrator, or the caregiver is depressed or burnt out. The misconception is that nursing-home staff are the usual abusers; family members are more common, though institutions have serious problems too.

Six entries to close the unit, on aging well socially and emotionally.

Emotional aging is the norm.

HGD 2294 Emotional Aging Is the Norm

Life satisfaction is stable or rising with age, and happiness rises through late midlife and early old age, possibly declining in very late life. Support, exercise and physical functioning help, while financial strain, caregiving, loneliness and grief hurt. The misconception is that happiness declines in old age.

Locus of control, and resilience.

HGD 2295 Locus of Control and Resilience

Resilience is working toward positive outcomes despite adversity, and an internal locus of control goes with effort, perseverance and better mental health in late life, like a widow who takes charge of the family finances and joins a walking group. Unit twelve introduced locus of control, and its late-life benefits are one reason perceived control matters in care settings.

The Langer and Rodin experiment.

HGD 2296 The Langer and Rodin Experiment

In Langer and Rodin's field experiment, nursing-home residents given responsibility and choice became more alert, active and content than residents told staff would decide for them. An eighteen-month follow-up by Rodin and Langer found sustained benefits in health and mortality indicators, from a small sample.

Gratitude, and religious participation.

HGD 2297 Gratitude and Religious Participation

Older adults show more gratitude than younger adults, and in experiments daily gratitude writing reduced loneliness and improved well-being. Religious participation rises with age and brings social connection, even after controlling for extraversion and health, though similar benefits come from other group activities. The course describes, not evaluates, religion.

Three strategies of successful aging.

HGD 2298 Selection, Optimization and Compensation

Paul Baltes proposed that successful aging uses three strategies. Selection is narrowing to the most meaningful activities and goals. Optimization is practising and investing more in those chosen activities. Compensation is using assistive devices, help or new strategies to offset losses. The pianist Arthur Rubinstein, at eighty, played fewer pieces, practised them more, and slowed before fast passages so they sounded faster by contrast. Exam items describe an adaptation and ask for the strategy: narrowing is selection, practice is optimization, aids or workarounds are compensation. In the fourth age, around ninety and beyond, losses become harder to manage this way.

How the domains intertwine.

HGD 2299 Domains Intertwine

Positive social and emotional aging is predicted by an optimistic view of aging, spiritual contentment, purpose and good social support, and success in physical, cognitive, emotional and social aging each predicts the others. Active engagement in work, productivity and connection ties the domains together, a use it or lose it pattern across life.

Look at what you can now do. You can state the retirement finding: most retirees report better mental health, circumstances matter, and selection, especially by health, complicates the comparison. You can name Atchley's phases: remote and immediate pre-retirement, the honeymoon, disenchantment, and reorientation. You can tell activities of daily living, basic self-care, from instrumental activities, such as finances, and match needs to settings, from independent living to nursing homes. You can say that family members are the most common abusers of older adults, and financial abuse the most commonly reported form. And you can name selection, optimization and compensation, as Rubinstein showed at the piano. Unit Seventeen turns to death, dying and bereavement.