Abstract
Retirement anxiety represents a major challenge for older workers who hold negative expectations and concerns regarding the consequences of their future retirement. Although prior studies suggest that retirement is an age-related transition that may serve as a reminder that life is nearing its end, little is known about how subjective nearness-to-death is related to retirement anxiety, and the role of work group identification as a boundary condition. The current study draws on terror management and social identity theories to hypothesize and investigate these relationships. A three-way interaction model was tested on a sample of 327 Israeli older workers. We found a positive association between subjective nearness-to-death and retirement anxiety. Further, we demonstrated that the positive relationship between subjective nearness-to-death and retirement anxiety was more prominent for older workers whose work group self-definition and self-investment were both high or were both low. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Research on Aging |
| DOIs | |
| State | Accepted/In press - 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The contribution of Dr. Froidevaux was partially supported by a fellowship awarded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (P300P1-174393).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2022.
Keywords
- older workers
- retirement anxiety
- social identity theory
- subjective nearness-to-death
- terror management theory
- work group identification
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Psychology
- Health(social science)
- Geriatrics and Gerontology