Retirement self-efficacy: the effects of socioeconomic status, life satisfaction, health, and readiness for retirement.

The purpose of this study is to determine if educational level, occupation, socioeconomic status, life satisfaction, self-rated health, and readiness for retirement are correlated with retirement self-efficacy (RSE). Second, this study investigates whether the combination of these variables gives a better explanation of RSE than does any variable singly. Eight-three retired and 40 pre-retired subjects participated in this study. RSE was measured by the Retirement Self-Efficacy Scale. Higher education, occupational class, socioeconomic level, and readiness for retirement were all found to be positively related to RSE (p less than .05) for the total group. The strongest predictors of RSE were readiness for retirement for the retired group (p less than .05) and life satisfaction for the pre-retired group (p less than .01).