Occupational prestige and basic need satisfaction at work as predictors of the pre-retirement anxiety among Nigerian university lecturers

o build a solid knowledge base for ideas that would improve the well-being of retiring lecturers in Nigerian universities, we investigated the predictive roles of occupational prestige and basic need satisfaction at work in pre-retirement anxiety among Nigerian university lecturers. Using a purposive sampling technique, we selected 210 (males=53%; females=47%) prospective retirees to participate in the study. Their ages ranged between 60 and 70 years (M= 65; SD=4.83). Hierarchical Multiple Regression results showed that occupational prestige significantly and negatively predicted pre-retirement anxiety; basic need satisfaction at work significantly and negatively predicted pre-retirement anxiety, both of which confirm the two hypotheses of the study. The result indicated that the deteriorating occupational prestige of university lecturers, orchestrated by a lack of positive attention from the Nigerian government, triggers pre-retirement anxiety. Thus the study recommended that government should improve the satisfaction of the basic needs at work and the occupational prestige of Nigerian university lecturers, as doing so will provide clear retirement goals for Nigerian university lecturers.