Process of Retirement Planning Scale: Psychometric Properties of the Complete and Short Spanish Versions

Abstract

Abstract Workers who plan for retirement generally adjust better to this phase of life. Therefore, retirees, researchers, and practitioners benefit from the development of retirement preparation measures and interventions. The Process of Retirement Planning Scale (PRePS), originally developed in New Zealand, considers retirement planning as a multidimensional process that happens in 4 stages: representations, goals, decisions, and behaviors. This study aimed to validate the complete and short versions of the PRePS in Spanish. The translated complete version was administrated in a sample of 1,827 Spanish employees aged from 26 to 68 (M = 46.8; SD = 11.9), which was further randomly split into 3 subsamples. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated that both the complete version and the short version of the scale had satisfactory psychometric properties. The complete Spanish PRePS contains 37 items, which reflects 4 dimensions: financial (10 items), lifestyle (9 items), psychosocial (8 items), and health planning (10 items) and 4 stages: representations (12 items), goals (4 items), decisions (8 items), and preparedness (13 items). The short Spanish PRePS contains 24 items. Age, gender, and general self-efficacy were significant predictors of the PRePS dimensions, offering validity evidence from the standpoint of construct nomological network. The advantages of using the PRePS for researchers, professionals, and Spanish policy makers are discussed. As this scale has already been adapted to 5 different languages—English, Turkish, Korean, Portuguese, and now Spanish—cross-national studies about retirement planning are encouraged.