The empty nest has been variously defined but generally taken
to refer to the post-parenthood phase (Barber, 1989). Several
studies describe the effect of children’s departure from home as
one of major role loss for the parents who react with feelings of
depression and loneliness: the so-called ‘‘empty nest syndrome’’
(Fahrenberg, 1986). China has the world’s largest number of
elderly population. At present, the ‘‘empty nest elderly family’’ in
China account for almost 25% among elderly households, and the
proportion of ‘‘empty nest elderly family’’ in Beijing has been
increased to over 35%. It is estimated that the proportion of emptynest
elderly households will reach 90% by 2030, while all our
elderly families will be ‘‘of the empty nest’’ (Li, Chen, & Li, 2003).
Our previous study showed that the social support and depression
differs between single person (26.8%) and couple (73.2%) households,
single person households got less social support and suffer
more depression