Do predictors of life satisfaction change in the last years leading up to retirement? The case of job satisfaction and leisure satisfaction

Objectives. Predictors of life satisfaction vary between people and potentially also within people across the life span. However, little is known about when changes in the association between domain satisfaction and overall life satisfaction occur. In the present study, we focused on the last years of work before retirement when it is often assumed that workers become less attached to their workplace and focus on other areas of life instead, such as leisure activity. Our aim was to test if the associations between domain satisfaction (job and leisure) and overall life satisfaction change in the years before retirement.
Methods. We applied a time-to-retirement metric in a latent growth curve analysis to longitudinal data from the German Socioeconomic Panel Study (n = 3,401) to investigate whether the within-person associations between (1) job and overall life satisfaction and (2) leisure and overall life satisfaction change in the ten years preceding retirement.
Results. We found that job satisfaction was positively associated with life satisfaction at the between- and within-person level, but the within-person association weakened as workers approached retirement. The within-person association between leisure and life satisfaction was also positive across time but did not change significantly on the lead up to retirement.
Discussion. We interpret the results as evidence for a potential pre-retirement work disengagement, either to support post-retirement adjustment, or to protect from negative work experiences. We highlight the importance of taking the very last years of the work life into account when studying older workers or retirement adjustment.

Keywords: Disengagement; Job Satisfaction; Life Satisfaction; Retirement; Adaptation.