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Research suggests the United States could take a lesson from other parts of the world when it comes to retirement
By: David Forster
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — The United States has an aging population getting closer to retirement. But once they do reach that milestone, some struggle to find continued purpose because of the country’s work culture.
Graciela Muniz-Terrera is a professor of social medicine at Ohio University’s Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine. She was part of an international team of researchers looking at how our perceptions about work change as we near retirement age, and how we can prepare to have a continued sense of fulfillment after our careers.
She sat down to speak with WOUB’s David Forster for “Modern Science.”
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
What the study found about attitudes on work as retirement approaches
“What we found is that people preserved their life’s satisfaction. But slowly as individuals got closer to retirement, they feel more disengaged from work.”
How the United States approaches retirement versus other parts of the world
“In the U.S. that’s not the case. And we have many different patterns of involvement at work. We have some individuals who are full-time workers, part-time workers. They retire and then go back to work and so on.”
On what role employers have in retirement
“In Europe it’s very common that companies have pre-retirement workshops. And individuals start to disengage from work slowly over time, perhaps going from a full-time position to a part-time position, or letting them have a few hours where they can start engaging in some other activities so that retirement is not so abrupt and it doesn’t have such a strong impact in someone’s life.”
On the types of activities we can participate in to help prepare for retirement
“Volunteering is one of those activities that is very helpful when people approach retirement and start participating and extending their social network. Maintaining cognitive engagement and social engagement are very protective factors, even for cognitive decline. Anything that fills in those hours that formerly were filled in by being at work for eight hours a day.”
The first draft of the transcript used for this story was created in Adobe Podcast, which includes an AI transcription tool. A WOUB News Editor then reviewed, corrected and reformatted the transcript before publication.