How to Successfully Adjust to Retirement? Examining the Role of Pre-Retirement Resources

Abstract

Successfully adjusting to retirement represents a major challenge for many older workers. Although studies emphasize that successfully adjusting to new life circumstances in retirement may depend on the availability and fluctuation of specific resources, little is known about the impact of multiple pre-retirement resources availability and change on two distinctive outcomes: the process of successfully adjusting to retirement and, subsequently, the outcomes of such process in terms of post-retirement well-being. The current study draws from retirement adjustment resource-based dynamic theory to argue that multiple pre-retirement resources availability and change facilitate the process through which retirees get used to their new retirement life (retirement adjustment process), and, subsequently, their post-retirement well-being levels and change (retirement adjustment quality). Using archival data from 667 Chinese older workers transitioning into retirement collected with prospective longitudinal research design, we found evidence for positive impacts of multiple types of pre-retirement resources and their latent changes (i.e., financial well-being, family support, and proactive personality) on retirement adjustment process, which was in turn positively associated with post-retirement life satisfaction and its change. Further mediation tests revealed that the indirect effects through retirement adjustment process were statistically significant. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.