Recently, Korean society witnesses post-retirement life has become increasingly vulnerable to economic difficulties due to soaring retirees. Previous studies have rather focused on economic poverty and the factors causing poverty, overlooking to provide practical explanations on measures to overcome such difficulties.
This study suggests a substantive theory, a mechanism that the male retirees in their 60s experience facing economic problems.
9 retirees of the age group from Seoul and Jeonllabuk-do participated in in-depth interviews, whose data were analyzed by applying the Grounded Theory, a qualitative research method of Strauss and Corbin (1998). The research problem of this study narrows to ''what are the economic hardships and experimental structures of a male retiree in the 60s and what is the core category''.
From the result, in the open coding process, 116 concepts, 51 subcategories, and 23 categories were derived. The central phenomenon was found to be ''unable to break out from feeling powerless'' whereas its causal conditions were ''unprepared retirement'' and ''desire to make economic recovery at once''. Contextual conditions that correspond to the central phenomenon were ''the role of patriarch becomes ineffective'', ''desperate not being able to work'', and ''experiencing conflicts with the spouse''. The identified actions/reactions - ''avoid interpersonal relationships'', ''consider death with desperation'', ''depend on the wife for a living'', ''ask for assistance to survive'', ''balance values'', ''restructure from the basic life'', ''face the changed living situation and live up to reality'', ''look for ways to maintain living'', ''obtain a different perception and care for himself'' - are used to cope with the central phenomenon of ''unable to break out from feeling powerless''. These identified actions/reactions can be facilitated with the intervening conditions of ''changed the relationship with wife'', ''regret and resignation'', ''family members partaking in the economic activities'', ''fear of start working for inner and outer constraints'', and ''newly recognized compassions of people''. From these findings, it was feasible to draw out ''continue to live in difficult situations restlessly'', ''build up an adaptive attitude'', and ''find a small pleasure with ease''.
Coping procedures to economic difficulty in the post-retirement chronologically appear to expand in 6 stages. The first is the ''obstruction'' stage where the more he tries to cope with the restricted economic situation, the worse the situation becomes to the point no one can escape from. The second is the ''crouching'' stage that brings desperation and worthlessness, and makes one feel withered from a damaged reason for being. In the third ''dependency to the external resource'' stage, one accepts external assistance in order to maintain a current living condition. At a point, one finds it difficult to readily accept such assistance, but accepts as a necessary aid to overcome economic difficulties. The next is ''seeking internal change'' stage that balances one''s psychological and social values, and allows him to let down any existing overbearing attitude in life, try to communicate for sentimental atmosphere, and finally seek out ways to maintain living aggressively. In the fifth ''adapting reality'' stage, he perceives the world differently to care for himself with a newly acquired perspective, and forces self to pursue an interactive living in an effort to face the reality and search for a fitting position of work. In the last ''limited self-sufficient'' phase, he finds a small pleasure in everyday life and maintains such emotional state despite of difficult situations. This type of life demonstrates that even in restricted psychosocial factors that one can experience differed qualitative outcome, according to positive and flexible attitude that deals with difficult living conditions.
The core value to the experimental procedure of the male retirees in the 60s coping with economic problems was ''accept and live with realistic yet unavoidable conditions'', with whose property to the severity of hardship, adaptive attitude, and life objective, there came 4 different types of restricted self-sufficiency, abandonment, unyieldingness, and cynical criticism.
The restricted self-sufficient group has a sense of helplessness that it cannot be improved any more in the face of economic difficulties; however, it accepts and adapts to reality as it is. The abandoning group has external valuation as an important factor, making him depend on others and to be hesitant to search for a job. The unyielding group does not surrender to a hardship and motivates itself to continue with living without relying on others. The cynical criticism group focuses on learning and secludes in his own world, thus holds a passive attitude toward the sustenance of difficulty.
The results show that the male retirees in the 60s could regulate the contextual conditions'' effects of the central phenomenon of ''unable to break out from feeling powerless''. Employing the intervening strategies, they could further advance the structure and procedure of ''accept and live with realistic yet unavoidable conditions''. Contributing to a new understanding of individuals, families, and society in their experiences of the male retirees'' coping experience with economic hardships in their 60s, the results of this study is expected to provide fundamental information to present new perspectives on policy, counseling and program development on retirement.