Change of Retirement Attitudes and Retirement Planning: A Latent Growth Modeling Approach

Retirement presents a major life transition for older workers. Today, retirement is defined as a dynamic process that starts with retirement planning and decision making which may occur long time before the actual exit from workforce. By adopting a latent growth modeling approach, the present study aims to explore the change patterns of positive and negative attitudes toward retirement during pre-retirement period, and examine the relationship between retirement planning (i.e., financial, health, interpersonal, and work planning) and the change trajectories of retirement attitudes. Longitudinal data were collected from a sample of 464 Chinese older workers. Results indicated an increasing trend of positive attitudes toward retirement and a decreasing trend of negative attitudes toward retirement during the last year before expected retirement. Supporting the existence of promotion-focused and prevention-focused regulatory motives, the initial levels of both positive and negative retirement attitudes encou...