The empty nest syndrome assessment instrument: development and psychometric properties of Persian version among iranian older adults

Abstract

ABSTRACT Leaving home by children so-called ‘empty nest’ is a crucial event that will affect the parents’ quality of life. This article reports the development and validation of the empty nest syndrome Instrument (ENSAI), an instrument that assessed a set of signs and symptoms specific to parents confronted by the empty nest. Initially, qualitative responses from 41 parents were analyzed and cross-referenced with existing literature on empty nest syndrome to develop 21 items and six factors of Loneliness, Purposelessness, Anxiety-Depression, Insomnia, Grief-Loss, and Incompetency. Following a development phase, the instrument’s psychometric properties were tested on a sample of 210 parents using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFI). EFA revealed six subscales for ENSAI, collectively explaining 79% of the empty nest syndrome variance. All item loadings were ‘good’ to ‘excellent,’ ranging from 0.60 to 0.96. CFA indicated a high goodness of fit for the Persian version of ENSAI.