Risk of cognitive declines with retirement: Who declines and why?

Abstract

Retiring is associated with increased risk of cognitive decline (e.g., Bonsang, Adam, & Perelman, 2012; Wickrama, O'Neal, Kwag, & Lee, 2013). However, little is known about the moderating role of motivational and demographic factors that are implicated in adaptive development and the retirement transition process. We used data from the Midlife in the United States Study (n = 732, Mage = 57, SD = 5.76, 50% female) to examine whether the association between retirement and cognitive decline depended on a key motivation factor (goal disengagement) in propensity score matched samples of older retirees and employees. We explored whether these effects were further moderated by gender. Results showed that those who retired (vs. remained employed) experienced steeper 9-year declines in episodic memory (b = -.41, p = .001) only if they were high in goal disengagement and female. Findings are consistent with theories of lifespan development and cognitive aging and provide initial evidence that retirement may be associated with increased cognitive declines for only certain individuals prone to disengage from highly challenging activities and goal pursuits. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Figures

Figure 1.

Standardized mean differences on the matching variables before and after propensity score matching.

Figure 2.

Moderated differences in nine-year episodic memory for the matched samples of those who retired and their peers who remained employed. Simple slopes of retirement status are presented for males and females at low (−1 SD) and high (+1 SD) levels of goal disengagement. Episodic memory scores represent predicted regression values for each combination of retirement status, goal disengagement, and gender. Analyses controlled for autoregressive effects (baseline levels of episodic memory). Error bars represent ± 1 SE.