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The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences Advance Access originally published online on January 28, 2009
The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 2009 64B(1):77-86; doi:10.1093/geronb/gbn010
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

Women's Retirement Expectations: How Stable Are They?

Jen D. Wong and Melissa A. Hardy

Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park

Address correspondence to Jen D. Wong, MS, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, 113 South Henderson Building, University Park, PA 18602. Email: jdw276{at}psu.edu


  Abstract

Objective: Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Mature Women, we examine between- and within-person differences in expected retirement age as a key element of the retirement planning process. The expectation typologies of 1,626 women born between 1923 and 1937 were classified jointly on the basis of specificity and consistency.

Methods: Latent class analysis was used to determine retirement expectation patterns over a 7-year span. Multinomial logistic regression analyses were employed to estimate the effects of demographic and status characteristics on the likelihood of reporting 4 distinct longitudinal patterns of retirement expectations.

Results: Substantial heterogeneity in reports of expected retirement age between and within individuals over the 7-year span was found. Demographic and status characteristics, specifically age, race, marital status, job tenure, and recent job change, sorted respondents into different retirement expectation patterns.

Conclusions: The frequent within-person fluctuations and substantial between-person heterogeneity in retirement expectations indicate uncertainty and variability in both expectations and process of expectation formation. Variability in respondents' reports suggests that studying retirement expectations at multiple time points better captures the dynamics of preretirement planning.

Key Words: Expectations • Longitudinal analyses • Retirement

Received June 1, 2007; Accepted September 4, 2008

Decision Editor: Kenneth F. Ferraro, PhD


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