Many studies of preretirement through retirement years have shown that higher levels of stress are experienced by persons contemplating imminent retirement as compared to stress experienced in actual retirement. This pilot study is designed to test the instrumentation and methodology for a large scale longitudinal study of a) the levels of physical and mental health stress experienced by persons in the remote, near and initial phases of retirement, b) the empirical status of four sets of theoretically derived psychosocial variables which affect the stress levels experienced by preretirees and c) the relationships of parts a and b to levels of stress experienced in later stages of retirement. The pilot study provides information on the sensitivity and appropriateness of measures for parts a & b. All variables being tested for relationships with preretirement stress are not only theoretically based, but are also ones which can be affected by industry and/or community based prevention programs. Respondents will be drawn from a pool of volunteer federal employees, at diverse grade levels, who are at present or soon will be (by 1987) eligible for retirement. Standardized measures of physical and mental health status will be employed along with specially developed scales to assess the four sets of theoretically derived variables; career factors, accuracy of information about aging and retirement, extent and planfulness of options, and social support systems. Widely used items on health and financial expectations for retirement will also be included in order to determine whether the four sets of theoretically derived variables make significant contributions to preretirement stress beyond that created by the stereotypic worries of money and health. Data will be analyzed both for determination of psychometric qualities of the specially developed measures and for determination of regression equations to predict levels of physical and mental health stress.
