[Temporal ambivalences of aging: Individual patterns of time use in conflict between time wealth and time poverty]

Throughout their lives people are confronted with different time resources and demands that change continuously up into old age. With the help of a qualitative interview study the narrative constructions of subjective time experiences as well as individual ways of dealing with time in retirement were investigated. In particular the influences of older persons' experience of time within the dimensions of everyday time and life time were analyzed. In addition, the study focused on potential time conflicts between these two dimensions and the question of how older people deal with the ambivalence between everyday time wealth and biographical time poverty in older age. The results of the interviews with 50 retired men and women (aged 56-91 years) in Germany, which were analyzed with "grounded theory" techniques, indicated that time in retirement does not indeed always run smoothly. In particular, the individual perception of increasing biographical time poverty exerts pressure on the arrangement of activities and daily routine in retirement. The resulting time conflicts are reflected in differential patterns of time use through which older persons try to cope with their ambivalent time experiences.