The empty nest, depressive symptoms and loneliness of older parents: Prospective findings from the German Ageing Survey

The aim of this study was to analyse the longitudinal association between the transition to an empty nest and depressive symptoms and loneliness, respectively. Longitudinal data was used from the German Ageing Survey, a representative sample of community-dwelling adults aged 40 and over. The indication of children living outside the respondent's household was defined as an empty nest. A 6‐item version of the validated De Jong Gierveld Loneliness scale was used to assess perceived loneliness. The 15 item version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale was used to measure depressive symptoms. Fixed‐effects regression analyses adjusted for time‐varying socio‐demographic and health‐related variables were applied. The unadjusted regression yielded that transitioning to an empty nest led to decreased loneliness in men (b = -0.05; p < 0.05) and increased depressive symptoms in women (b = 0.48; p = 0.05). However, when controlling for potential confounders, the transition was no longer associated with a change in loneliness or depressive symptom scores. The empty nest is an expected phase of the family life cycle that most parents will experience. In this longitudinal study, this phase of the family life cycle was shown not to be associated with parents' psychosocial health in terms of loneliness and depressive symptoms. Our study suggests that the consequences of an empty nest have been overestimated in the past. Future longitudinal studies with panel regression models in different cultural settings are needed to confirm our findings.