How Late-Life Working Affects Depression Among Retirement-Aged Workers? An Examination of the Influence Paths of Job-Related (Non–Job-Related) Physical Activity and Social Contact

Abstract

Delayed retirement can imply both bright and dark sides for mental health of older workers, as it facilitates the job demand physical activity and social contact, while dampens the non-job demand physical activity. The overall impact of delayed retirement on mental health depends on which mediation path is dominant. Thus, policymakers should improve the policy design in order to better protect the health of older workers.

How the interplay of late retirement, health care, economic insecurity, and electronic social contact affects the mental health amongst older workers?

“…In addition, this study further analyzes the moderating role of economic insecurity in the relation between late retirement and mental health problem of older people and the relation between health care quality and mental health problem of older people. Specifically, delaying retirement can help older adults maintain better levels of mental health, which confirms the results of previous studies (Yuan, Zhang & Li, 2022a, 2022b; Bertoni et al., 2018; Li & Yuan, 2022; Li et al., 2022; Reynolds et al., 2012; Wahrendorf et al., 2017). Access to adequate health care resources is beneficial to the mental health of older people, which is also consistent with some studies (Brooker et al., 2014; Gong et al., 2016), as improved medical standards facilitate the timely and effective intervention of mental and physical diseases, and enable older people to be healthier and more engaged in daily life and work.…”