Subclinical depressive symptoms and job stress differentially impact memory in working and retired older adults

Retirement has been associated with cognitive decline beyond normal age-related decline. However, there are many individual differences in retirement that can influence cognition. Subclinical depressive symptoms are common in late life and are associated with general memory decline and a bias towards remembering negative events (i.e., better memory for negative vs. positive or neutral stimuli), in opposition to a reported positivity bias (i.e., better memory for positive vs. negative or neutral stimuli) in aging. Furthermore, job stress is often a major contributor to retirement decisions and may impact cognition post-retirement. Here, we aimed to examine how subclinical depressive symptoms and job stress in working and retired older adults impacted emotional memory. We found that retired, but not working, older adults with greater depressive symptoms showed enhanced negative and impaired positive memory. Second, working older adults with moderately high current job stress showed better memory overall but a weaker positivity bias, while retired older adults with moderately high retrospective job stress showed worse memory overall and a stronger positivity bias. These findings suggest that subclinical depressive symptoms and job stress have differing impacts on emotional memory in late life depending on retirement status.