by Daniel A. Goldfarb, Ph.D.

The following paper was presented at the annual conference of the Society for Police and Criminal Psychology in 1994. During my clinical practice I have encountered a number of retired police officers who had come to regret their decision to retire. I was initially suprised at the stress, depression, and anxiety I saw these former officers experiencing. But as I listened to these men an old saying popped into my mind: "If you are what you do, and you don't, you AINT!" At this point, it made sense. Police work becomes so much a part of an officers life, they are not always prepared to leave it behind. I decided that a quick instrument to help predict retirement satisfaction was in order. I did this pilot study to test for the feasability of such an instrument.

Hooker and Ventis (1984, pg. 478) note that "Retirement, as any major event in the life cycle requires adjustment". Pre planning an event is one way to improve the chances of successfully adjusting to a new life style. An instrument that would help predict the likelihood of retirement satisfaction would be helpful for the person making the decision to retire. This author found no such instrument in the literature for either the general public or law enforcement officers.

The literature on retirement does present certain variables which appear to be connected to life satisfaction after retirement. Factors such as perceived health, adequate contact with friends and sufficient income are correlated with life satisfaction after retirement (Bauer and Okun , 1983). Participation in recreational activities and satisfaction with those activities were found to have a significant positive relationship to reported satisfaction with retirement (Knesek, 1992). The attitude with which retirement is approached also influences satisfaction (Knesek, 1992). Dobson and Morrow (1984) noted that "Retirement attitudes were more strongly related to work commitment and job satisfaction than age, sex, health, and income." (pg. 81)

Some research explored the idea that fixed personality traits govern a persons satisfaction with retirement. Schmitt and Pulakos (1985) noted that people reporting the highest level of pre retirement job satisfaction reported the highest level of satisfaction with retirement. They stated that this supports their theory that certain people are predisposed to be satisfied more than others and will bring this trait to whatever environment they are in. Bauer and Okun (1983) examined the stability of life satisfaction for an older population of retirees. They concluded that "... life satisfaction is a relatively enduring cognitive assessment of attainment of one's desired goals or overall condition of life." (pg. 264) O'Brien (1981) found that a high internal locus of control subjects reported higher degrees of satisfaction with retirement then did subjects with high external locus of control. Hooker and Ventis (1984) noted that a strong work ethic was negatively correlated with retirement satisfaction.

Walker, Kimmel, and Price (1980) surveyed 2563 retirees from U.S. and Canadian corporations. Fifty nine percent responded. Of that group thirteen percent reported dissatisfaction with their retirement. These respondents noted that they found it difficult to keep busy, had not thought about retirement prior to retiring, and tended to be depressed and frustrated.

It should be noted that no research found by this author was specific to retirement satisfaction as reported by police officers as a group.

This author runs a mental health service for approximately 3000 officers. Over the years their has been an influx of retired officers who present with a number of psychological complaints such as depression, anxiety, and marital discord. They often report that these symptoms were either absent or minimal prior to retirement. A review of the cases seen by five therapists employed by this office indicate five main issues that revolve around the officers retirement:

1. Retirement as a loss of identity and self esteem.
2. Marital difficulties.
3. Retiring for the wrong reasons
4. Inability to plan and organize time.
5. Boredom.

The goal of the present study was to examine the feasibility that an instrument could be designed to tap into the above factors and therefore offer officers some predictive information regarding retirement.

The names of 110 retired police officers were chosen at random from a mailing list maintained by the benefit fund of the Police Benevolent Association. Each retired officer was mailed a copy of both the Satisfaction Predication Scale and the Satisfaction questionnaire. A cover letter was included explaining the nature of the research, and instructing the officer to answer the questions on the Prediction Scale as they would have prior to having retired. Although not done intentionally, it should be noted that all names from the list were men. This probably reflects the smaller number of female police officers on the force.

Of the 110 retired police officers contacted by mail, 64 or 58% responded. It is unknown why 42% of the subjects did not respond, and thus these results must be viewed accordingly. Opinions regarding retirement satisfaction were strong and bi-modal in nature. It was noted by this author that the early responders tended to be satisfied with retirement while those subjects responding later offered a negative appraisal of their retirement.

Table 1 shows the scores of the Prediction Scale as they are distributed one standard deviation above and below the mean.

As seen in table 2, there was a high and significant correlation between the total Prediction Score and self ratings of overall retirement satisfaction. Retirement not being as expected and marital satisfaction were also highly correlated with the prediction score. Correlation's were also significant between the prediction score and retired officers missing the job and being bored. No significant correlation was found for self reports of ability to plan enough activity and the prediction score.

The results of the study indicate that satisfaction with retirement can be predicted, at least as defined by presence of problems this author noted in retired officers seeking counseling. Of those responding 12.50% noted that they were either mildly or very dissatisfied with their retirement. 12.50% noted that retirement was not what they expected. 21.89% of the retired officers noted that they were either mildly or very dissatisfied with there marriage. 12.51% noted that they were experiencing some level of boredom, while a full 40.63% noted that they missed being a police officer.

It needs to be reiterated that this was a pilot study. As such there are some flaws which may lead to future research. The subject pool utilized had already retired. Thus it is unknown how much their current attitude about their retirement influenced there responses on the Prediction Scale. It would be interesting to give this measure to officers prior to their retirement.

Further, the survey did not ask the subjects for demographic information which might have been useful in further defining variables that would predict satisfaction with retirement. Specifically, current age, age at time of retirement, time on the job above the 20 years, length of retirement, relocation away from Long Island, current work status or current activity level was not explored. All subjects were either police officer's or detectives, although no breakdown was obtained. Superior Officers were not included in the Sample. As noted above, retired female officers were not included in the sample. This is probably a result of the very low number of female officers of retirement age.

While this study did find a correlation between the Prediction Score and the Satisfaction questions, it was not determined what an individual Prediction Score would mean. Low Scores predict less retirement satisfaction. However specific cutoff's leading to degree of satisfaction is not known.

At the present time this author believes that predicting retirement satisfaction in police officers is possible. The Prediction Scale at it's current state of development does not extend far beyond a research tool. However, this author has used it with individual officers to help generate hypothesis regarding potential areas of difficulty with their retirement. Potential problem areas can highlighted with recommendations then made to avoid them.