Late-Life Engagement after Retirement:Implications for Psychological Well-Being and Distress in Elderly

With the increased life expectancies, changing demographics, India's elderly population is at the highest ever 8.1% of total population, making it imperative for both policy makers and practitioners to be concerned with the well-being of the elderly and their successful ageing. An active life, positive interpersonal relationships, positive engagement and continued employment are markers of successful ageing and high psychological well-being. The present study investigates the effect of post retirement work involvement (paid or voluntary) on mental health of retired individuals. The sample consisted of 68 retirees out of which 34 were working and 34 were non-working post retirement and they were assessed using the Mental Health Inventory (MHI; Veit & Ware, 1983) with two global scales of Psychological Well-being (PWB) and Psychological Distress (PD) and a global Mental Health Index (MHI). The effect of post retirement work involvement on subscales of general positive affect, emotional ties, life satisfaction, anxiety, depression and loss of behavioural/emotional control was also measured. Significant differences were seen in the mental health, psychological well-being and psychological distress of the two groups along with the differences in the subscales. These insights can be used for enhancing the mental well-being of the retirees through continued life engagement post retirement.