Historical and Cross-Country Differences in Life Satisfaction Across Retirement in Germany and Switzerland From 2000 to 2019
- PMID: 37293925
- PMCID: PMC10394993
- DOI: 10.1093/geronb/gbad066
Historical and Cross-Country Differences in Life Satisfaction Across Retirement in Germany and Switzerland From 2000 to 2019
Abstract
Objectives: Recent trends, such as changes in pension systems or cohort differences in individual resources, have altered the face of retirement transitions. Little is known about how these trends have affected older people's life satisfaction around retirement age in the past decades. In this study, we investigated how levels and changes in life satisfaction before and after retirement changed over historical time in Germany and Switzerland.
Methods: We used longitudinal data from the German Socioeconomic Panel Study and the Swiss Household Panel (SHP) from 2000 to 2019. Level, preretirement change, and short- and long-term change in life satisfaction (0-10) after retirement were predicted by year of retirement (2001-2019) in a multigroup piecewise growth curve model.
Results: We found improvements in levels of life satisfaction and preretirement changes in life satisfaction with historical time in both countries. Furthermore, we found that unlike in Switzerland, short-time changes in life satisfaction across retirement improved over historical time in Germany.
Discussion: Our findings imply that life satisfaction trajectories around retirement age have improved over the last 20 years. These findings may be explained by general improvements in the health and psychosocial functioning of older people. More research is needed to show for whom these improvements are stronger or weaker and if they will be maintained in a changing retirement landscape.
Keywords: Education; Life satisfaction; Retirement; Social change.
© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.
Conflict of interest statement
The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
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