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Friends, not children and grandchildren could be the key to a happy retirement
University of Greenwich

Date of release: Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Strong social networks may be more important than having children and grandchildren around you if you’re hoping for a happy retirement. This is the finding of a study by Dr Oliver Robinson and a research team at the University of Greenwich, presented at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference.

Dr Robinson and his team recruited 279 retirees from around the UK through a retirement website and online newsletter. The participants answered questions about their experience of retirement, marital status and retirement status of their partner, whether they have children and grandchildren, whether they have active social groups, as well as completing a satisfaction with life scale.

Dr Robinson, from the University of Greenwich’s School of Health & Social Care, says: “Retirement is a longed-for experience for many, and certainly a major life change for those who experience it. We wanted to investigate the factors that accounted for a happy retirement experience.

“Our most surprising finding was that retirees who had children and grandchildren were no more satisfied with life than the retirees without them. Being active in social groups was strongly correlated with higher levels of life satisfaction, however.”

It was also found that the retirees who were married or in long-term relationships reported significantly higher levels of life satisfaction than single individuals, and those whose partners were also retired were more satisfied with life than those whose partners were not.

“Having active social groups is strongly linked to life satisfaction,” Dr Robinson concludes. “These findings support the importance of interventions designed to promote social networking in those who could experience retirement as a lonely, rather than fulfilling, stage of life.”