A meta-analysis of retirement adjustment predictors

While most people experience a positive transition to retirement, as many as one third of the population find the transition challenging. Previous research has identified a number of factors that predict adjustment outcomes – with finances, physical health, marital relationship, wider social participation, and exit conditions identified as being particularly key. This study aimed to examine their relative contribution to retirement adjustment by assessing the magnitude of the associations between each key predictor category and retirement adjustment outcomes, as well as to examine potential important moderating factors. A three-level meta-analysis (based on 915 effect sizes, k = 139, N = 78,632) revealed that social participation had the strongest positive association with adjustment ( r = .23), followed by physical health ( r = .22), marital relationship ( r = .18), finances ( r = .17) and exit conditions ( r = .15), respectively. Additional analyses revealed substantial variation within each category (with effect sizes ranging from r = −.03 to r = .43), suggesting that there is value in future research and theory to recognise substantive theoretical and empirical differences in defining retirement predictors. Less physical health symptoms and ease of maintaining social relationships were identified as the most important subfactors for successful adjustment. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of these findings in facilitating retirement adjustment. • We examined five established predictors of retirement adjustment. • Predictors differed in their association with adjustment. • Social participation and health had the strongest associations with adjustment. • We examined subfactors due to substantial variation within each predictor. • Health symptoms and maintaining social ties were the most important subfactors.