Title
Development of a new measure for mental retirement; testing of a three-factor structure of mentale retirement in different subgroups
Author
Huijs, J.J.J.M.
Houtman, I.L.D.
Blonk, R.W.B.
Publication year
2019
Abstract
Background. The aim of this study is to develop a new measure for the concept of mental retirement and test the construct validity of the measure. Employees who are ‘mentally retired’ are present at their work physically, but have already said their goodbyes mentally. Mental retirement has a three-factor structure: developmental proactivity, work engagement and perceived appreciation. Methods. We use data from employees (N = 867) of five different organizations in the Netherlands. Mental retirement was assessed with 11 items in an online survey. In addition, socio-demographic characteristics like age, level of education and occupation, were measured. Next to tests of internal consistency, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is performed to test the three-factor structure of mental retirement in this population and in different subgroups (age, education, occupation). Results. The internal consistency varies from .80 to .94 for the developmental proactivity scale and the work engagement scale, respectively (appreciation was measured with one item). For the CFA, the three-factor model fits the data adequately. Multiple group analyses also shows equal factor loadings in all subgroups, but the mean levels of mental retirement differ across subgroups. Conclusions. This study confirms the three-factor model of mental retirement in a general group of employees as well as across different subgroups. However, this study only tested the construct validity. Future research should study validity more extensively and be longitudinal in nature. In addition, the causal chain of antecedent variables to mental retirement and its outcomes should be considered. These studies could also focus on the effects of interventions aiming at preventing or decreasing the level of mental retirement in organizations.
Subject
Life
WHC - Work, Health and Care
ELSS - Earth, Life and Social Sciences
Work and Employment
Healthy Living
Mental retirement
Employability
Development
Engagement
Appreciation
Construct validity
Antecedent variable
Confirmatory factor analysis
Construct validity
Education
Human
Human experiment
Internal consistency
Major clinical study
Netherlands
Organization
Retirement
Work engagement
To reference this document use:
http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:41c6798a-423b-4d14-a97f-5889eb05f550
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7649-5
TNO identifier
870477
Source
BMC Public Health, 19
Article number
1604
Document type
article