Cornell Study of Occupational Retirement, 1952-1958 [United States]

Resource Information

The work Cornell Study of Occupational Retirement, 1952-1958 [United States] represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Bowdoin College Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Cornell Study of Occupational Retirement, 1952-1958 [United States]

Creator

• Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor]
• Streib, Gordon

Contributor

• Barron, Milton L.
• Suchman, Edward A.
• Thompson, Wayne E.

Author

• Suchman, Edward A.
• Streib, Gordon
• Barron, Milton L.
• Thompson, Wayne E.

Contributor

• Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor]

Subject

• personal adjustment
• retirees
• retirement
• retirement adjustment
• retirement planning
• social adjustment
• survey

Genre

• survey

Summary

The Cornell Study of Occupational Retirement is a national, longitudinal study of retirement that began in 1952 and was likely the first large-scale study of retirement behavior. The study aimed to understand and follow the transition from work to retirement -- a quite "well-defined" life transition in the 1950s. The study followed a cohort of 64 year old workers into their retirement years. Over the course of the 6-year study, over 50 percent of the respondents retired. The survey includes a wide range of questions about: sociodemographic characteristics, family, daily activities, work (type of work and work satisfaction), economic status (income, homeownership, and household size), pensions, age identity, age stereotypes, retirement plans, health, life satisfaction and adjustment to the retirement transition. Unique features of the study include: (1) Gender. Men and women were included. Much of our current understanding of retirement behavior mid-century (and even into the 1970s) is based on men's experiences. The Cornell Study includes female workers, both unmarried and married. (2) Longitudinal Design. Most retirement studies at that point in history were small-scale and cross-sectional. (3) Health Information. In addition to self-reported health information from the respondents, medical directors at the sampled companies were interviewed and asked to conduct a standardized physical examination of the employees in the sample -- the medical records on the respondents have been retained. These data are in hard-copy paper format. Thus, it appears that no meaningful analysis of the data has yet been conducted. These studies consist of data from waves 2, 3, 4, and 5 of the study, conducted in 1954, '55, '57, and '58, respectively. As the follow-up surveys for this longitudinal research, it provides useful information on changes in retirees' attitudes toward retirement and its accompanying life circumstances. The original baseline data for the study has also been released by ICPSR under study number 34918