NIMHANS study finds loneliness linked to psychological distress, excessive series watching among parents of emigrated children

The study highlights the emotional challenges that parents may experience when their children settle abroad and everyday family interactions become less frequent. | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

Loneliness among parents whose adult children have migrated abroad is associated with higher psychological distress, difficulties in regulating emotions and problematic series watching, an exploratory study by researchers from NIMHANS has found.

The findings assume relevance on World Mental Health Day, observed on October 10, which draws attention to mental health and the need to address psychological well-being. The study highlights the emotional challenges that parents may experience when their children settle abroad and everyday family interactions become less frequent.

64 ‘empty-nest’ parents

Published in BMC Research Notes, the study examined 64 ‘empty-nest’ parents aged between 45 and 65, whose adult children had emigrated and lived away from home for at least two years. The sample comprised 30 fathers and 34 mothers from different families in Karnataka, Haryana and Punjab. Most belonged to middle socioeconomic backgrounds and nuclear families, and more than half had been in the empty-nest phase for over five years.

Rajesh Kumar, associate professor in the department of clinical psychology at NIMHANS and the corresponding author of the study, said the findings highlighted the relationship between loneliness and emotional well-being among parents adjusting to life without their children at home.