Exploring leisure planning: implications for retirement

• Main Author: Hetherington, Arne
• Other Authors: Meldrum, John T.
• Format: Others
• Language: English; en
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: retirement planning; retirement transition; well-being; self-determination theory; serious leisure perspective
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1828/11401

Retirement is a significant life transition for many older adults, and historically most retirement planning focusses on financial planning. Not only is there far less importance placed on non-financial retirement planning, but also there is also little research on what planning priorities contribute to retirement satisfaction. This dissertation presents two studies conducted with the purpose of identifying these priorities. Study one involved one-on-one semi-structured interviews of 16 retired and non-retired individuals who were engaged in an endurance serious leisure sport. It revealed similarities and differences between pre-retired and retired participants as well as overall contradictions between participants’ perceived and practised retirement strategies. While a general lack of leisure retirement planning was observed, self-determination theory’s precepts of autonomy, competence, and relatedness fulfilment were predominant in the significance the endurance sport held for participants’ retirement plans and appeared to contribute significantly to retirement well-being. The second study was a sequential transformative mixed-method design of 50 retired individuals involving an online survey and focus group discussion and was founded on Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and Serious Leisure Perspective (SLP). Qualitative data were analysed using Constant Comparison Method, Word Count, and Classical Content Analysis. Quantitative methods were applied to determine if retirement satisfaction and vitality related to SDT constructs. Using multiple linear regression analyses, autonomy (β = .43; 95% CI .04 - .22; p = .01), leisure priority (β =.28; 95% CI -.01 - .33; p =.05), and casual leisure competence (β =.68; 95% CI .02 - .59; p =.04) emerged as items most related to retirement satisfaction, while relatedness (β .32; 95% CI .14 – 1.44; p = .02) and autonomy satisfaction (β =.27; 95% CI -.01 – 1.26; p =.05) were associated with vitality. === Graduate