What are the long term effects of retirement on family relationships? Do personality characteristics or attitudes of one spouse impinge on the other spouse's retirement plans and adjustment? What differences exist in the ways males and females adapt to retirement? Leading researchers in the fields of family studies and gerontology present enlightening information on the impact of retirement on family relations. Original essays focus on gender and ethnic differences, the role of children, siblings, and significant others, and the multiple changes retirement creates in marriage. In addition, a variety of theoretical models, existing research, and methodological problems in studying retired families are explored. Families and Retirement is essential reading for graduate students, researchers, and professionals in gerontology, sociology, social work, family psychology, and policy studies. "This is a well-written book. The editors have done a great job in selecting chapter authors whose research is important and directly related to the focus of the book. . . . The book will be an excellent text for sociology classes focusing mainly on retirement. It will also serve well as a supplemental text in gerontology, family studies, economics, and other college and university courses wherein retirement is studied." --Journal of Marriage and the Family "Just when it seems too complex a task to produce a text that addresses retirement from the perspective of the family, a new work appears that does just that. . . . The editors have successfully expanded [the] traditional concern with the individual by choosing studies showing relationships and issues on aspects of retirement and family." --Family Relations

Retirement brings with it the promises of leisure and freedom as well as the risks of boredom and isolation. When retirees rid their schedules of anything resembling the kinds of obligations that once had been imposed by work, they will experience a sometimes-uncomfortable absence of structure. In The Experience of Retirement, the distinguished sociologist Robert S. Weiss provides a detailed description of how some people plan their retirement, what life in retirement is like, and what makes for a fulfilling retirement. His engaging book can thus serve as a most useful guide. Weiss shows us both retirement's benefits and its possible costs, both the relief retirees can feel once free of work's stresses and constraints and the discomfort that can be caused by loss of the positive aspects of working life. The book is based on extensive interviews with eighty-nine men and women before and after their retirement from middle-income careers. descriptions of leaving their careers, considering what to do with their time, confronting issues of income in retirement, dealing - sometimes - with social isolation, and reorganizing their lives. The interviews reveal the way in which retirement affects marriages and other familial relationships. Weiss concludes by presenting advice about retirement based on the actual experiences of retirees. For anyone approaching the age of retirement or already retired and looking for a more satisfying post-career life, for personnel managers, health care professionals, and all those who provide services for the retired, The Experience of Retirement will be an illuminating guidebook to this phase of life.

Retirement brings with it the promises of leisure and freedom as well as the risks of boredom and isolation. When retirees rid their schedules of anything resembling the kinds of obligations that once had been imposed by work, they will experience a sometimes-uncomfortable absence of structure. In The Experience of Retirement, the distinguished sociologist Robert S. Weiss provides a detailed description of how some people plan their retirement, what life in retirement is like, and what makes for a fulfilling retirement. His engaging book can thus serve as a most useful guide. Weiss shows us both retirement's benefits and its possible costs, both the relief retirees can feel once free of work's stresses and constraints and the discomfort that can be caused by loss of the positive aspects of working life.The book is based on extensive interviews with eighty-nine men and women before and after their retirement from middle-income careers. Weiss makes vivid their experiences by presenting, in their own words, their descriptions of leaving their careers, considering what to do with their time, confronting issues of income in retirement, dealing, sometimes, with social isolation, and reorganizing their lives. The interviews reveal the way in which retirement affects marriages and other familial relationships. Weiss concludes by presenting advice about retirement based on the actual experiences of retirees. For anyone approaching the age of retirement or already retired and looking for a more satisfying post-career life, for personnel managers, health care professionals, and all those who provide services for the retired, The Experience of Retirement will be an illuminating guidebook to this phase of life.

What are the long term effects of retirement on family relationships? Do personality characteristics or attitudes of one spouse impinge on the other spouse's retirement plans and adjustment? What differences exist in the ways males and females adapt to retirement? Leading researchers in the fields of family studies and gerontology present enlightening information on the impact of retirement on family relations. Original essays focus on gender and ethnic differences, the role of children, siblings, and significant others, and the multiple changes retirement creates in marriage. In addition, a variety of theoretical models, existing research, and methodological problems in studying retired families are explored. Families and Retirement is essential reading for graduate students, researchers, and professionals in gerontology, sociology, social work, family psychology, and policy studies. "This is a well-written book. The editors have done a great job in selecting chapter authors whose research is important and directly related to the focus of the book. . . . The book will be an excellent text for sociology classes focusing mainly on retirement. It will also serve well as a supplemental text in gerontology, family studies, economics, and other college and university courses wherein retirement is studied." --Journal of Marriage and the Family "Just when it seems too complex a task to produce a text that addresses retirement from the perspective of the family, a new work appears that does just that. . . . The editors have successfully expanded [the] traditional concern with the individual by choosing studies showing relationships and issues on aspects of retirement and family." --Family Relations