通常情況下，“空巢老人（emptynester）”是指子女離家后的中老年人。如今，隨著社會(huì)老齡化程度的加深，空巢老人越來越多，已經(jīng)成為一個(gè)不容忽視的社會(huì)問題（social issue）。同時(shí)它也導(dǎo)致了另一個(gè)問題——家庭空巢綜合征（syndrome）的產(chǎn)生，是指當(dāng)子女由于工作、學(xué)習(xí)、結(jié)婚等原因而離家后，獨(dú)守空巢的中老年人因此而產(chǎn)生的心理失調(diào)癥狀。

Typically, "empty nester" refers to the middle-aged and elderly people whose children have left home. Nowadays, along with the advance of aging of the society, there are more and more empty nesters, which have become a social issue that cannot be ignored. At the same time, it also leads another problem--empty nest syndrome--a psychological disorder the middle-aged and elderly people suffered, which is caused by the absence of their children who move out of home due to work, study, marriage and so on.