Happily ever after: the self- and dyadic-regulation model of retiree subjective well-being in romantic couples

Abstract Improving retirees’ subjective well-being is crucial, and yet we know little about how retiree subjective well-being develops over time. The existing research has also largely neglected the dynamic role of significant others in shaping retiree adjustment outcomes, which is an important omission because social relationships become more important with age, as romantic partners take a particularly central role in the lives of retiring/retired individuals. Drawing on action regulation and transactive goal dynamics theories, this conceptual article addresses these concerns by developing the self- and dyadic-regulation pathways to retiree subjective well-being. The self-regulation pathway conceptualizes retirement planning as an iterative action process that involves setting retirement-related goals and generating, deciding on, and executing plans to pursue those goals. We propose that retirement planning leads to higher levels of retiree subjective well-being via the attainment of resources and that retiree subjective well-being has a reversed positive effect on retirement planning. Assuming that Partner A is a retiring/retired individual and Partner B is their partner, we conceptualize the dyadic-regulation pathway to retiree subjective well-being, whereby Partner B’s action process is interlinked with Partner A’s retirement planning process and Partner A’s attainment of resources. These links between both partners should be weakened by Partner A’s power and strengthened by couple-level intimacy. Couple-level intimacy and retiree subjective well-being are posited as reciprocally and positively related. Together, both pathways suggest that retirement planning is a dynamic and iterative process in which the retiring/retired individuals and their partners jointly engage, ultimately leading to better retirement adjustment.