Retirement, death attitudes, and legacy planning among late-career academics

Abstract

Retirement is a highly individualized transition out of the paid labor force that often takes place during the latter half of the life span. This transition not only carries implications for the retiree’s sense of self, identity, and development, but also for the families of the retirees. Retirement often has gendered experiences and implications. Academic retirement can be especially challenging, as academics often identify very strongly with their work and therefore often work until death. Academics may also leave many projects unfinished, which could be detrimental to the scientific world. Utilizing a phenomenological approach to inquiry, the current dissertation examines motivations and plans for academic retirement, death, and legacy planning. Ten academics who were approaching retirement or had recently retired were interviewed extensively about their careers, retirement motivations, and final plans. Through inductive thematic analysis, several themes emerged, revealing that academics conceptualize the upcoming ends of their careers and lives in broadly different ways, but often feel hesitation to retire. Additionally, participants’ motivations varied by gender, with female participants emphasizing family factors as an especially salient retirement motivator. Multiple theoretical lenses are evoked in interpreting these participants’ experiences, with particular emphasis on psychosocial development theory, life course theory, and socioemotional selectivity theory. Results suggest that additional institutional support is needed for academic retirees. Implications for retirees and institutions of higher education are explored, as are directions for future research.