How people feel about their age shapes whether they actually retire
Workers who feel younger than their actual age are less likely to follow through on retirement plans, a major European study finds. The discovery matters for employers and policymakers wrestling with labor shortages and pension costs—psychological identity, not just policy incentives, drives retirement behavior.
Originaltitel: Subjective age and retirement intentions as predictors of retirement status among 50+ adults
With an aging population in Europe, it is important to understand psychological factors behind retirement decisions, since many middle-aged and older workers express a wish to retire early. Building on evidence that subjective age is embedded in identity processes and relates to retirement decision-making, this study applies an identity-based motivation perspective to address the limited empirical research on subjective age and retirement intentions interplay by testing whether subjective age moderates the extent to which retirement intentions translate into subsequent retirement behavior. Data were drawn from Waves 7 (2019/2020), 9 (2021/2022), and the COVID-19 survey (2021) of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). The sample comprised 3,075 respondents aged 50 and older who were employed in Wave 7, received an old-age pension in Wave 9, participated in all three waves and had valid values for all variables used in the study. Retirement intentions were measured with one item, subjective age - as the difference between how old individuals feel compared to their actual age. A generalized mixed-effects analysis was conducted using R. Results showed that older subjective age and retirement intentions predicted a greater likelihood of retirement. Subjective age moderated this association: the link between feeling older and retirement was more pronounced among those with retirement intentions. These associations remained significant after controlling for demographic, socioeconomic, and health-related factors. The findings support an identity-based motivation perspective by indicating that subjective age, as an identity-related construct, may function as a moderator in the retirement intention - behavior link.