Expanding, Reducing, Concentrating and Diffusing: Activity Patterns of Recent Retirees in the United States

Abstract

This study investigates pre- and post-retirement leisure behavior of 430 retirees using data from the Americans Changing Lives dataset. The differences between four defined groups including reducers, concentrators, diffusers, and expanders were explored and leisure participation and subjective well being (i.e., depressive symptoms and life satisfaction) were measured. Although most adults are assumed to have more available time after leaving the workforce, most retirees fell into the reducers' category. Significant differences between the groups were found in leisure involvement, but no differences were evident in background characteristics including health status, or in mean scores for depressive symptoms. Group differences in reported life satisfaction showed that the concentrators had slightly higher life satisfaction than the other three groups.

Keywords:

• aging
• continuity
• leisure
• retirement
• subjective well being

Notes

*p ≤ .05;

***p ≤ .001

***p ≤ .001

*p ≤ .05;

**p ≤ .01;

***p ≤ .001

^ap ≤ .10

^ap ≤ .10,

*p ≤ .05,

**p ≤ .01,

***p ≤ .001

* p ≤ .05,

** p ≤ .01,

*** p ≤ .001