Investigating the identity changes of mothers in the face of empty nest

The present study was done using a qualitative approach and descriptive phenomenological method aimed at analyzing identity changes in mothers confronted with the phenomenon of an empty nest. The research community consisted of mothers living in Tehran, aging between 45 and 65 years old whose last child had left home at least 1 year and at most 5 years ago. Sampling was done theoretically until reaching saturation and finally 11 people were selected as the sample. The collection of data was performed using a semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis was used for analyzing the data. The findings of the research include 3 main themes and 20 subthemes. The themes include issues related to children (the change of home atmosphere, concern about children’s future, children’s independence), negative consequences in mothers’ lives (sense of aging, loneliness, sense of emptiness, sense of missing, being confused, loss of identity, being bored and depressed, losing independence), positive consequences in mothers’ lives (an increase of self-care, an increase of spouse’s support and sense of closeness to a spouse, self-actualization, an increase of social relationships, increase of leisure and entertainment time, self-improvement, positivism, improving sex, a decrease of responsibility for children ). The results showed that most of the participants considered children’s departure as a positive event, moreover, husbands’ supportiveness after children’s departure was an important and effective factor in mothers’ positive performance in the empty nest period.