This study is a mixed-methods exploration of the way women create meaning when children leave home. Survey data was collected from diverse women to better understand cultural differences in norms and expectations surrounding the launching phase of parenting. Focus groups helped to contextualize women’s experiences and confirm results from the quantitative analysis. The research was guided by theoretical perspectives including Identity Theory, Intergenerational Solidarity Theory, the Life Course Perspective, and Feminist Theory on the family.
Ultimately, four questions were addressed through this study: (1) In what ways do characteristics of mothers and their children affect the meaning of motherhood; (2) In what ways do aspects of a child’s transition affect the way that women define their parenting roles and relationships and construct meaning around motherhood; (3) In what ways has historical context created differences in the ways that women experience the launching phase of parenthood; and (4) How do women perceive the experience of being an empty nest mother?
Results indicated few demographic characteristics of mothers and their children as predictors of parenting identity after children leave home, and those statistically significant relationships that were found were small. Focus groups confirmed limited differences in women based on race, socio-economic status, and marital status. The quantitative study also revealed only a few small but significant relationships between the details of the child’s transition and the mother’s feelings about parenting. In focus group discussions, mothers discussed normative successes of their children at greater length and emphasized transitions as long-term processes rather than acute events. Focus groups also indicated that the availability of new technologies influenced mothers’ experiences, however the lack of differences in norms around empty nest based on age suggested limited changes in how women have experienced this period across time. Overall, women indicated that the empty nest period was positive, involving opportunity for growth, though also intertwined with sadness. The overwhelming similarities in the experience of empty nest by women of varying backgrounds was attributed to both the limitations of this study in only attracting women for whom parenting was highly salient, and the strong ideologies surrounding mothering in society.