SOC261: While All Parents are Potentially Susceptible to the ‘Empty Nest Syndrome’: Sociology of Family Assignment, SUSS, Singapore

Question

While all parents are potentially susceptible to the ’empty nest syndrome’, not all parents experience it with the same degree of impact on their lives. To what extent do you think the ’empty nest syndrome’ is a gendered issue, affecting fathers and mothers differently?

In your discussion, you should:

• analyse the extent to which empty nest syndrome is a gendered experience, that is whether it affects fathers and mothers differently. You should examine gender roles and stereotypes to see how they either constrain or facilitate the way fathers and mothers cope with their social and emotional responses when their children leave home, either for studies, work or to form their own family after marriage.
• demonstrate the extent to which social structural factors like social class, educational and work opportunities, ethnic and cultural traditions, as well as changes and challenges brought about by economic development and modernisation trends that may set the conditions for variations in the experiences of fathers and mothers. You should also discuss factors like opportunity structures and family social capital when you examine Singaporean parents’ experience of the ’empty nest syndrome’.
• apply relevant sociological theories and concepts to support your arguments about how social structural and cultural factors in society can shape the ways in which parents experience the empty nest syndrome. You should make it a point not to reiterate ideas from the course materials. Also, do refrain from applying psychological theories in your discussion.