PSYCHOSOCIAL ADJUSTMENT OF RETIRED UNIVERSITY STAFF AFTER RELOCATING FROM UNIVERSITY STAFF QUARTERS IN SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA

Abstract

The study investigated psychosocial adjustment issues of retired university staff who relocated from university staff quarters after retirement. The study adopted the survey research design. The study population comprised retirees who relocated from university staff quarters within the last six years from six federal universities in Southwestern Nigeria. Five hundred (500) retired university staff were selected from five federal universities using purposive, convenience and snowball sampling techniques, in which year of establishment and availability of staff quarters in the university were among the selection criteria. A research instrument titled the Psycho-social Adjustment of Retired University Staff Questionnaire (PARUSQ) was used to collect information from the retirees. Data collected were analysed using frequency counts, percentages and t-test statistics. The results showed that 60% of retired university staff who relocated from staff quarters experienced psychosocial challenges in retirement, with “dehumanising looks and disrespect from others” (89.3%) as the most dominant challenge, while “decreased strength and problems associated with ageing” was the least experienced challenge(57.4%). The results also showed that factors such as sex and marital status had no significant effect on the psychosocial adjustment of retirees, while religion and paternal/maternal status had a significant influence on their psychosocial adjustment. From the study, it is recommended that university management should incorporate mandatory retirement counselling into their staff induction programmes to help them deal with psychological, social, physical and emotional issues to avoid problems in retirement.