Although prior research has shown the importance of income and health status in predicting the decision to retire before age 65, a systematic comparision of the relative importance of social pressures to other variables important to the retirement decision has not been conducted. In order to ascertain the usefulness of the behavioral intention model in predicting early retirement decisions, and further, to compare the attitudinal and normative components of the model with the traditional predictors favoring early retirement (poor health, adequate income), male industrial workers from six major plants in a midwestern city were interviewed. Data collection included measures of intention to retire, perceived outcomes of retirement, desirability of each outcome, social pressures, motivation to comply, income, and health status. Analyses of the data indicated that social pressures were significant predictors of retirement intentions while health and income were not significant. The strongest source of social pressure was the family; another source of pressure was the respondents' physicians. The lack of importance attached to health and income may have been due to several factors: (1) lack of variance in these dimensions in this population; (2) income status and the strong pension program of this sample; or (3) respondents' belief that companies would provide adequate pensions. The results suggest that, given the importance of the family and other social support networks for the industrial worker, retirement planning sessions should incorporate social issues such as human relations and interpersonal communications along with the economic issues. (AG)