[Women and their retirement: adaptation as a dynamic assessment process]

With this study we try to fill the gap in our knowledge about the retirement process for women. This study indicates that women assess their retirement in many different ways, both before their retirement (initial appraisal) and after it (tertiary appraisal). At the first interview before retirement almost half of the (63) women showed a positive appraisal, while 2.5 year after retirement almost 60% (of 51 women) showed a positive appraisal. We also notice an important diversity in the way they deal with the situation. Mostly problem-oriented and cognitive coping categories were used. The positive connection between the problem oriented coping on the one hand, and on the other hand a positive tertiary appraisal and positive changes in the appraisal underlines the efficacy of the problem-oriented coping. We found an important individual dynamic: almost half of the examined women (22 of 51) assesses their retirement differently during the retirement transition period. From an agogic point of view it is therefore important to pay attention to these individual trajectory changes.