| The purpose of this study was to take a theory-driven approach to examine different patterns of retirement transition and adjustment process. In doing so, three theoretical perspectives of retirement transition and adjustment process were reviewed. Using the life course approach in tandem with role theory and continuity theory, hypotheses were formed regarding the different retirement transition and adjustment patterns and how different individual and contextual variables relate to those patterns. The longitudinal archival data from Health and Retirement Survey (HRS) was used to test these hypotheses. Three patterns of retirees' psychological well-being changes were found through growth mixture modeling (GMM) analysis. Further, retiree subgroups that directly link to different growth curve patterns of psychological well-being were profiled based on the latent class membership derived from GMM. By recognizing the existence of multiple retiree subgroups corresponding to different psychological well-being change patterns, this study provides a way to reconcile inconsistent findings from previous studies. The practical implications of this study are also discussed. |
