Navigating Later-Life Transitions: Passion, Control Strategies, and Psychological Functioning Under Perceived Decline

When older adults perceive that their skills are declining, those who are harmoniously passionate cope more effectively by adjusting goals and reframing setbacks. This flexible self-regulation protects psychological functioning during major transitions. Obsessive passion showed no such benefit. We demonstrated this process with university professors during their transition to retirement. Our findings identify motivational quality as a key factor in how people adapt to loss and constraint in later-life transitions.