Retirement Sequences of Older Americans: Moderately Destandardized and Highly Stratified Across Gender, Class, and Race

Publikation: Beitrag in FachzeitschriftForschungsartikelBeigetragenBegutachtung

Beitragende

  • Esteban Calvo - , Universidad Diego Portales, Columbia University (Autor:in)
  • Ignacio Madero-Cabib - , Universidad Diego Portales, Universidad de Chile (Autor:in)
  • Ursula M. Staudinger - , Columbia University (Autor:in)

Abstract

Purpose of the Study: A destandardization of labor-force patterns revolving around retirement has been observed in recent literature. It is unclear, however, to which degree and of which kind. This study looked at sequences rather than individual statuses or transitions and argued that differentiating older Americans retirement sequences by type, order, and timing and considering gender, class, and race differences yields a less destandardized picture. Design and Methods: Sequence analysis was employed to analyze panel data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) for 7,881 individuals observed 6 consecutive times between ages 60-61 and 70-71. Results: As expected, types of retirement sequences were identified that cannot be subsumed under the conventional model of complete retirement from full-time employment around age 65. However, these retirement sequences were not entirely destandardized, as some irreversibility and age-grading persisted. Further, the degree of destandardization varied along gender, class, and race. Unconventional sequences were archetypal for middle-level educated individuals and Blacks. Also, sequences for women and individuals with lower education showed more unemployment and part-time jobs, and less age-grading. Implications: A sequence-analytic approach that models group differences uncovers misjudgments about the degree of destandardization of retirement sequences. When a continuous process is represented as individual transitions, the overall pattern of retirement sequences gets lost and appears destandardized. These patterns get further complicated by differences in social structures by gender, class, and race in ways that seem to reproduce advantages that men, more highly educated individuals, and Whites enjoy in numerous areas over the life course.

Details

OriginalspracheEnglisch
Seiten (von - bis)1166-1176
Seitenumfang11
FachzeitschriftGerontologist
Jahrgang58
Ausgabenummer6
PublikationsstatusVeröffentlicht - 3 Nov. 2018
Peer-Review-StatusJa
Extern publiziertJa

Externe IDs

PubMed 28586409

Schlagworte

Schlagwörter

  • Life course/life span, Productive aging, Public policy, Sociology of aging/social gerontology, Workforce issues

Bibliotheksschlagworte