The "Dark Side" of Pre-Retirement Work Attachment for Later-Life Mental Health: Mediating Role of Retirement Adjustment and Moderating Role of Social Network.

BACKGROUND: With rapid population aging and extended post-retirement lifespan, understanding the modifiable psychological and social processes that shape retirees' mental health has become increasingly important for behavioral health management. However, the mechanisms linking pre-retirement work attachment and retirement adjustment to post-retirement mental health remain poorly understood. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 302 Chinese community-dwelling retirees and assessed work attachments (work-family centrality [WFC] and affective organizational commitment [AOC]), retirement adjustment (enjoyment of retirement, loss of retirement, and nostalgia for work), social network, leisure activity, and mental health (depression and life satisfaction). Hierarchical multiple regression was used to examine factors associated with retirement adjustment. Moderated mediation models were then applied to test whether social network and leisure activity moderated the mediating role of retirement adjustment between work attachments and mental health. RESULTS: Retirement adjustment was multidimensional. Loss of retirement was associated only with socioeconomic factors; nostalgia for work was associated only with WFC and AOC; and enjoyment of retirement was related to demographic factors, socioeconomic factors, and WFC. Higher work attachments were associated with lower enjoyment of retirement, which in turn was associated with more severe depressive symptoms and lower life satisfaction. The mediating effect of enjoyment of retirement was significant only among retirees with low or moderate levels of social network, but not among those with a high level of social network. CONCLUSION: This exploratory study identified distinct factors for each retirement adjustment dimension and showed that higher pre-retirement work attachments are associated with poorer later-life mental health through diminished enjoyment of retirement. A rich social network buffers this negative relationship, suggesting that strengthening social connections is a promising behavioral target for psychological interventions aimed at promoting mental health in later life. Given that the cross-sectional design precludes causal inferences, future longitudinal research is needed to confirm these pathways.