Quality of Life and Health: Influence of Preparation for Retirement Behaviors through the Serial Mediation of Losses and Gains

The dynamic theory of resources is a recent approach that provides a theoretical framework for understanding, forecasting, and examining the relationships between people’s resources and their adaptation to retirement. This article focuses on the transition to retirement in order to better understand how retirees’ perceptions of their gains and losses when they approach retirement significantly explain their well-being after retirement. Moreover, we explore the relationship between people’s preparation behaviors before retirement (T1) and their quality of life and health after retirement (T3), taking into consideration the mediating role of perceived gains and losses in retirement (T2). This study was carried out with a sample of Spanish workers (N = 244) who were employed at T1 and had retired at T2 and T3. The results support the assertion that losses explain well-being better than gains. In addition, some specific losses showed a greater explanatory power for quality of life and health than others. The implications are discussed with a view to understanding retirement and the design of interventions.