Posted on 02/21/2008 2:14:57 PM PST by blam
Empty Nest Syndrome May Not Be Bad After All, Study Finds
ScienceDaily (Feb. 21, 2008) — One day they are crawling, the next day they are driving and then suddenly they aren’t kids anymore. As children reach adulthood, the parent-child relationship changes as parents learn to adapt to newly independent children. A new study by a University of Missouri professor explored the differences in how mothers and fathers interacted with their young adult children. She found there were few differences in the way mothers and fathers felt and that many of the changes were positive, despite the perception that mothers in particular fall apart and experience the so-called empty nest syndrome.
“As children age, direct caretaking and influence diminish, and children are often seen by their parents as peers with whom they are have continuing relationships,” said Christine Proulx, assistant professor of human development and family studies in the College of Human Environmental Sciences. “Although our between-families results suggest these patterns of change and continuity differ by parent and child gender, our within-family analyses suggest important similarities among mothers and fathers within the same family.”
Of most concern to the parents in the study were firstborns’ independence, time spent together and role patterns. The study found that generally fathers and mothers reported similar changes in the parent-child relationship during their child’s movements into young adulthood. Both fathers and mothers reported differences in independence/maturity of the child, closeness/openness in the relationship, contact/time spent together and changes in role pattern.
Another change reported by parents was relating more like peers and having more adult-like interactions with their young adult child than in prior years. Other parents reported acting more like a mentor and giving advice to their children rather than demands.
Some of the things that remained the same in the parent-child relationship were providing financial assistance and continuing to be a mentor to their young adult child. Few parents in the study reported changes in emotional support to the children.
“The within-family analysis suggests that mothers and fathers in the same families in our study rarely reported divergent experiences with their young adult sons and daughters,” Proulx said. “Overwhelmingly, the examination of mothers’ and fathers’ responses revealed similarities in mothers’ and fathers’ experiences as parents to their young adult child.”
The study interviewed 142 sets of parents with firstborn young adult sons and daughters and was published in the Journal of Family Issues.
Adapted from materials provided by University of Missouri-Columbia.
DUH, I hope that they didn’t spend a lot of money doing this phoney study.
My daughter turned 17 today. I’m blah. On the bright side she wanted Season 2 of Hogan’s Heroes!
Just damn! I have grand children older than that, I'm ancient.
We love our daughters, but I must say we are enjoying the “empty nest”.
My son turned 40 today.
I JUST WANT TO KNOW HOW TO GET MINE EMPTY!!!!!!
My kid, and some friends, were home on a break from school.
His buddies said, “My parents get mad, cause I don’t spend enough time at home during breaks.”
My kid says, “My parent’s bought me a house, so I wouldn’t come home anymore.”
I blew beer out my nose.
Isn’t it amazing that humanity survived all this time without these kinds of studies? Do these people not have enough to do or are they just stupid? It would make more sense to study why the frizbee flys. Well...maybe not but it sounded good.
I was devastated when our youngest left in November for bootcamp....until my Husband reminded me how much fun we had BEFORE kids.
I wish my kids well, will answer the phone when they call etc.....
My daughter, the one in the Navy, turned 24 today.
The key for us is living in a rural area where there’s not much “life”. They went where they could get a “life”.
My youngest son turns 20 this week. Ahhhh, seems like just yesterday he was drooling all over my shoulder...
Downsize the nest as soon as possible. :-)
cant believe you married a bubblehead : )
I was stationed at Pearl Harbor Subase many moons ago. I also took Basic Electricity and Electronics in Orlando, surrounded by nukes. These guys are a whole different breed (I loved it by the way : ))
I cried everyday for months when my daughter left for boot camp. I told myself..it’s just two months. Then at graduation I realized that it’s a whole lot more than that!
I had to start grieving all over again. Tell your son THANKS
Everytime my hubby drives past a small apartment he looks at it longingly.......Our son, his very pregnant wife and soon the baby are all living there. UGH
My son will be getting out of the Navy at the end of the year he’s stationed in Japan so we don’t see him very often. He’ll be 25 when he comes home. His dad and I are quite looking forward to having him home again. (at least for awhile! lol!)
Get a vasectomy?
We live in a great neighborhood, leasing a cool house and happy empty nester's....all is well.....
“I wish my kids well, will answer the phone when they call etc.....”
ROFMLAO!
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