From an aging research and life-course perspective, the transition to retirement marks a significant life-event and provides a unique opportunity to study psychological health and coping during a period of substantial change in everyday life. The aim of the present paper is to: (a) outline the rationale of the HEalth, Ageing and Retirement Transitions in Sweden (HEARTS) study, (b) describe the study sample, and (c) to present some initial results from the two first waves regarding the association between retirement status and psychological health. The HEARTS study is designed to annually study psychological health in the years before and following retirement, and to examine change and stability patterns related to the retirement event. Among a representative Swedish population-based sample of 14,990 individuals aged 60–66 years, 5,913 completed the baseline questionnaire in 2015. The majority of the participants (69%) completed a web-based survey, and the rest (31%) completed a paper version. The baseline HEARTS sample represents the general population well in terms of gender and age, but is more highly educated. Cross-sectional findings from the first wave showed that retired individuals demonstrated better psychological health compared to those who were still working. Longitudinal results from the first and second waves showed that individuals who retired between waves showed more positive changes in psychological health compared with those still working or previously retired.

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This study investigated the effects of two different types of subjective knowledge assessments on the level of knowledge assessment and risk perception in five risk domains: health, environment, crime, economy, and transport (Appendix 1). The two types of knowledge assessments were regular knowledge assessments and ignorance assessments, in which the participants were asked to assess their lack of knowledge. Furthermore, the effect of the order in which the subjective knowledge assessments and risk assessments were performed was investigated. Four different experimental conditions were used to explore the effects. In the knowledge first condition, all regular knowledge assessments were performed, followed by all risk assessments. In the alternate condition, the participants alternated between the knowledge assessments and risk assessments. In the risk first condition, the participants performed all risk assessments, followed by all knowledge assessments. Finally, in the ignorance first condition, the participants performed all ignorance assessments, followed by all risk assessments. The ignorance assessments indicated higher subjective knowledge ratings than the regular knowledge assessments in the first three conditions. The order in which the regular knowledge assessments were performed had no effect on the risk assessments. However, the ignorance assessments were associated with the lowest risk assessments of all four conditions. The participants may have associated their difficulty finding examples of ignorance with a lack of risk.

It has been suggested that volunteering leads to increases in well-being, particularly in older and retiring adults, and that volunteering could be used as a public health intervention to increase well-being. However, the causal relationship has been questioned. We investigated the association between voluntary work and life satisfaction in a bivariate dual-change score model, using 4 years of longitudinal data from 1,123 participants from the Health, Aging and Retirement Transitions in Sweden (HEARTS) study. Both the frequency of volunteering and the level of life satisfaction increased across the retirement transition. However, baseline life satisfaction and volunteering were only marginally associated. Further, the coupling parameters suggest that higher levels of volunteering were followed by decreases in life satisfaction and that higher levels of life satisfaction were followed by increases in volunteering. These findings suggest that increasing levels of volunteering might not be a fruitful strategy for improving life satisfaction for all older adults—if people engage too much in voluntary work, it might even be detrimental for their life satisfaction. More research is needed to better understand when and for whom increased levels of volunteering might have positive effects on life satisfaction.