Aspects of vocational development in older males : an exploratory study

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relevance and descriptive applicability of vocational development theories for the later lifestages of maintenance and decline in older males. The following objectives guided the research: 1. To determine whether or not the maintenance period is characterized by limited occupational change. 2. To determine whether or not the decline stage is characterized by withdrawal from paid work, followed by continued lack of participation in work. 3. To develop a model that would predict the predisposition to withdraw from working life among older males. Pertinent data were obtained or derived for 5020 older males from the Department of Labor's National Longitudinal Surveys data base. Data for the first two objectives were analyzed using descriptive statistics and cohort analysis. Objective three was accomplished through the use of multiple regression analysis and an extension of MRA, commonality analysis. Major Findings: 1. Occupational stability increases with age, the incidence of occupational changing dropping rapidly in the early sixties. 2. Even after the age of sixty, over 10% of the respondents reported a change in occupation over a two-year time period. 3. About 58% of the respondents changed occupations at least once during the ten-year time frame of the study. Over 10% of the respondents aged 64-68 reported having changed jobs at least three changes of occupational fields. 4. The initial decision to retire attained a peak rate of incidence of 31% at age 66 but displayed an earlier sharp rise around the age of 62 (from 9% at age 61 to 20% at age 63). 5. About one-fourth of the respondents reported themselves as retired at some time during the period of study (men aged 45-68 during the period of 1966-1975). About half of the men who retired later reported a return to work. 6. Whereas incidence of retirement increases with age, so also does post-retirement work involvement, particularly after age sixty. Thirty-six percent of the men aged 62-66 who reported their first retirement in 1973 later reported being employed...