Abstract
Retirement is a major life event representing the transition into a new period of life that signals aging at the individual and societal level. The retirement transition highlights the very basic challenge of psychological aging as the capacity to adapt, not only to biological changes but to changes, demands, and expectations in the environment that contribute to an altered lifestyle, including changes in physical, cognitive and social activities, which in turn can affect psychological health. Although continuity is the default expectation according to previous findings showing that people are actively managing their transition to create continuity, contentment, or reconciliation with their new status”, retirement requires coping and adaptation in which psychological health can be challenged. Therefore, there is a need to better understand associations of continuity and change in psychological health before and following retirement because of its significance in defining the new life challenges to which older adults have to adapt when they enter the third age or retirement due to age. In the symposium, a recent longitudinal study highlighting psychological adaption across retirement transitions, the “Health, Aging and Retirement Transitions in Sweden” (HEARTS) study, will be described along with results from the first and second waves. The four presentations in the symposium will highlight: (a) a general overview of the HEARTS study design, along with possibilities for collaboration and access to data; (b) life-satisfaction from a resource perspective; (c) personality profiles and adaption to retirement; (d) if late retirement is a health risk.