Work and retirement: a test of attitudinal relationships.

Recent studies report contradictory findings on the hypothesis of an inverse relationship between work satisfaction and retirement attitude. In an effort to clarify the situation, it has been suggested that only in instances where work acts as a key organizing factor in the workers' lives should the inverse relationship be observed. Data testing these hypotheses were analyzed from a study of employed males aged 50 years of age and older (N=1,922) residing in a midwestern state. Results of this study offer only marginal support for the hypothesis. A work satisfaction-retirement attitude typology based on combinations of the two attitudinal areas is discussed.