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Recent policy shifts in the United States have resulted in an increase in the number of older workers remaining in the labor force. Increases in the retirement age for receiving full Social Security benefits coupled with declining pension funds and the erosion of employer retiree health benefits, mean that current cohorts of older workers may fully expect to work longer than previous generations. Yet, working longer may not always be possible due to health problems, outdated skills, economic insecurity, and competing obligations. We examine the consequences of unmet expectations for full time work after age 62 for life satisfaction in a nationally representative sample of older Americans. With longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study (1998-2008), this paper uses repeated measures of expectations for later life work among a cohort of Americans (N=1684) gathered prospectively over an eight year period, and examines the effects of unfulfilled expectations on subsequent life satisfaction. Using generalized growth mixture modeling three latent classes of individuals were identified with distinct trajectories of later life work expectations (low expectations, high expectations, and neutral expectations for full time work after age 62). A majority of men had generally high expectations to work full time past age 62, whereas the majority of women reported a low probability of working full time after age 62. When comparing expectations to actual full time work past age 62, we found no effects of unmet expectations for women. But men with less job stability (reflected by shorter job tenure and lower incomes) generally had high expectations to work longer, and their life satisfaction scores were significantly lower when these expectations were not realized. The hazards of missed expectations for later life work have consequences for subjective well-being in older adults.

The process of transitioning into, and living in, a retirement community can be usefully examined with the concept of 'therapeutic landscapes.' While underutilized in anthropology and gerontology, the concept offers a combination of geographical and cultural views on the place and well-being relationship. The inclusion of an occupational science perspective, wherein occupations (or everyday activities of meaning) are seen as a crucial part of the person-place relationship, should enhance the therapeutic landscape perspective of older persons and their retirement communities. We present a case study analysis that attempts to combine these perspectives and examine the role of occupation in the lives of older people who moved to a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC). 116 movers completed pre- and post-move questionnaires about their levels of engagement in 20 activities. Frequency distributions, paired t-tests, and logistic regression analyses performed on the data indicate that while overall levels of activity did not change from pre- to post-move, patterns of engagement did change in the course of the move to the CCRC. Some social and cultural activities (e.g., parties, concerts, movies, meetings) increased in frequency, and some maintenance chores (e.g., grocery shopping, housekeeping) and communication (email) decreased in frequency. Moreover, total activity engagement after the move was associated with residential satisfaction in the CCRC. Even with their limitations, the data and analytical findings suggest that occupations are an important part of the CCRC therapeutic landscape process.