ABSTRACT. Retirement is an important life cycle marker and has a major impact on an individual's functioning. Based upon the social convoy model, it is hypothesized that retirement decreases the likelihood of continuation of coworker relationships. Socio-emotional selectivity theory predicts a decline in the number of peripheral relationships with aging and thereby in network size and number of coworker relationships among working and retired people. Data comes from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam with five observations between 1992 and 2002. At baseline 226 men aged 54-81 years were employed; 166 men retired in the course of the study. The results of multilevel regression analyses showed a stable network size both for working and retired men. Among all men the number of work-related network members declined, but more strongly among retirees. It is concluded that the convoy model fits better with the data than socio-emotional selectivity theory.
