ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the psychological re-adjustment to people sense of self that occurs during the retirement journey. It examines how strength of worker identity was associated with adjustment to retirement, using a range of statistical techniques. Early studies of retirement adjustment concluded that men had more difficulties in managing this transition than women, because their occupational attachments were stronger and because they had weaker social networks and fewer 'non-work routines'. A couple of studies have focused on retired professional women, possibly to ascertain whether they have similar difficulties to work-identified men through the retirement journey. While the women were aware of identity disruption as a potential outcome of retirement from their professional occupations, they took active steps to maintain a robust sense of self through both holding on to aspects of their pre-retirement personas and embracing new opportunities to expand their roles and goals.
