Study On Life Of Urban Empty-nest Middle-aged Couple

Along with the society transition, the single-child familyof three people has become more common in China as theresult of the special birth control policy currentlyimplemented. Owing to the leaving of their children forstudy, work and marriage, the empty-nest family, used to befor seniors, has been the common existence formiddle-aged couple, which will be a trend for future urbanfamily structure.Through the study, the middle-aged couple in empty-nest family will be under difference influence. Someof them will have more intimate couple relationship withmore freedom, however, in general, the traditional conceptof women’s domestic and men’s more public role is stilldeeply-rooted in China, so the responsibilities of raisingchildren are more borne by mother who will lean too heavilyon her child emotionally and feel lost after child’s leavinghome, especially for naturally sensitive ones. And it willbecome worse during the menopause period and evensuffering from mental illness. Meanwhile, the psychologicalstress of middle-aged men will be intensified when theircareer and social role crisis encounters the empty-nestperiod. Even though most of couples can get used to theirchildren’s absence, but there is no denying that they willinevitably meet the various problems at the beginning,including imbalance of marriage relationship, reverseparenthood, and mental adaptation and family life when they get along with each other only, etc.Middle-aged couple with empty-nest family shouldproactively respond their child’s absence, develop moreintimate marriage relationship, complete self-adaptationand take new lifestyle with more content and meaning andget well-prepared for later life both on mental and living skillperspective. In addition, the child should fulfill theirresponsibility for their parents and the government,community and other social service agency should providemore support and help to them.This essay includes six chapters: chapter I introducesthe background and objective of this essay, define theempty-nest family and summarize relevant literature.Chapter II is the overview of the main resource and theorybasis. Chapter III describes the investigation of themarriage life for the middle-aged couple with empty-nestfamily in X city. Chapter IV analyzes both the positive and negative influence of empty-nest situation. Chapter Vsummarizes the factor having impact on middle-agedcouple and Chapter VI provides the suggestion and adviceto the problem in empty-nest family.From the sociology insight, this essay studies thispopulation of middle-aged couple with empty-nest familyand discuss the common problem they encountered aimingto call for the attention from society to such special andgrowing group.