The Differential Impact of Retirement on Contact Frequency With Family, Friends, Neighbors, and Coworkers

Most studies on retirement and social network dynamics focus on the closer social network, leaving the role of more peripheral contacts largely overlooked. This article studies how retirement affects contact frequency with a wider range of social ties. We formulate and test differential hypotheses for each category of ties, and additionally examine gender and partner status differences.

We analyze 3 waves of panel data of the NIDI Pension Panel Study, collected in the Netherlands between 2015 and 2023 (n = 5,238). We use 2-way fixed-effects regression models to study within-person change in contact frequency with the different categories of social ties after retirement. To test the differential hypotheses, we conduct Wald tests comparing coefficients across models.

The results indicate that retirement stimulates contact primarily with neighbors and friends, to a lesser extent with siblings and (grand)children, and does not affect contact frequency with parents. Contact with ex-coworkers initially increases but then decreases over time. For women, the positive association between retirement and contact with ex-coworkers, friends, and children is stronger. Not having a partner reduces the association between retirement and contact with friends and ex-coworkers.

Our findings suggest that retirees attempt to replace lost workplace interactions by engaging with their former colleagues outside of work and increasing contact with neighbors. Simultaneously, the results suggest substantial continuity in contact with all ties. We suggest that larger changes might take place outside of the ties studied here, with new contacts, and provide several suggestions for future research.