Enhancing Mental Health Through Retirement Planning Achievement: A Moderated Mediation Model and Income Group Differences

TL;DR

This study explores how retirement planning affects mental health in older adults, finding that benefits vary based on psychological resources and income.

Contribution

The paper introduces a moderated mediation model showing how retirement planning impacts mental health differently across income groups.

Findings

Retirement planning achievement improves mental health directly and through increased social participation and retirement enjoyment.

Retirement adjustment has opposing effects: low loss amplifies benefits, while high enjoyment reduces them.

The positive effects of retirement planning are strongest in the average-income group and weakest in the insufficient-income group.

Abstract

This study centers on retirement planning achievement, examining its impact mechanism on older adults’ mental health and its boundary conditions. Drawing on self-determination theory (SDT) and conservation of resources (COR) theory, we tested a parallel mediation and a moderated mediation model using data from an online survey with 900 Chinese retirees aged 55–74. Structural equation modelling revealed that retirement planning achievement directly and positively predicted mental health, and indirectly through three pathways: greater active social participation, higher retirement enjoyment, and reduced retirement loss. Furthermore, retirement adjustment exhibited dual, and opposing, moderating effects on the direct path: low retirement loss, as a psychological resource, significantly amplified the positive impact of planning achievement (a resource gain spiral), whereas high retirement enjoyment attenuated its effect (a ceiling effect). Income-group analysis revealed that both the parallel mediation and moderated mediation models were fully supported in the average-income group, but effects were non-significant for the insufficient-income group and weakened in the sufficient-income group. These findings suggest that retirement planning achievement represents a key pathway to promoting mental health in later life, but its benefits are constrained by psychological resources and socioeconomic status. The “achievement dividend” is greatest among well-adjusted retirees in the average-income group, highlighting the heterogeneity in retirement adjustment and providing evidence for targeted, equitable ageing-support policies.

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