The Onset of Empty Nest Increases Subjective Well-Being Amongst Middle-Aged and Older Adults: Longitudinal National Evidence From Thailand, 2015-2022.

Transition into an empty nest was positively associated with positive affect in men.

• Adjusted fixed-effects regression showed β = 0.32, p < 0.001 for men.
• The pooled analytic sample included 6535 observations of men across four waves.
• Data were drawn from the Health, Aging and Retirement in Thailand (HART) study conducted in 2015, 2017, 2020, and 2022.
• Linear fixed-effects regressions were used to estimate longitudinal associations.

Transition into an empty nest was positively associated with positive affect in women.

• Adjusted fixed-effects regression showed β = 0.17, p < 0.05 for women.
• The pooled analytic sample included 8521 observations of women across four waves.
• The effect size for women was smaller than that observed for men (β = 0.17 vs. β = 0.32).
• Linear fixed-effects regressions controlled for within-person changes over time.

Transition into an empty nest was positively associated with greater life satisfaction in women but not in men.

• Adjusted fixed-effects regression showed β = 0.12, p < 0.05 for women.
• The association between empty nest transition and life satisfaction was not statistically significant in men.
• This sex difference suggests that the life satisfaction benefit of empty nest onset may be sex-specific.
• Life satisfaction was measured using established methods as part of the subjective well-being assessment.

Transitions into an empty nest were not significantly associated with negative affect in either men or women.

• No statistically significant association was found between empty nest transition and negative affect for either sex.
• Negative affect was one of three subjective well-being components assessed alongside positive affect and life satisfaction.
• This null finding applies to both the male subsample (6535 observations) and female subsample (8521 observations).

The study sample consisted of middle-aged and older Thai adults with an average age of 68.7 years.

• The average age of the entire analytical sample was 68.7 years (SD = 11.9 years, range 45–107 years).
• The analytic sample was restricted to individuals with live children.
• Four waves of longitudinal data were used: 2015, 2017, 2020, and 2022.
• Total pooled observations numbered 15,056 (6535 men and 8521 women).