It’s 20 months ago since our eldest son, Ian, left Ireland to work in Saudi Arabia. I was broken-hearted to see him go. It didn’t matter that he was up for a bit of adventure, that he wanted to experience the world – I just worried. He was gone and we’d be lucky to see him once a year.

All through the tough 1980s my five siblings had been able to make a living in this country. What’s more, apart from an uncle, there had been no emigration on either side of my family for generations, so I felt Ian’s leaving very badly. I stayed positive and cheerful. I ran up an enormous phone bill just calling him whenever it took my fancy. I justified this by saying it was only the cost of buying him jeans, or a dinner, or filling the car with petrol. We made the Skype calls every week but our broadband is not good enough to support the visual side of it, so it’s just voice. The only good thing from my point of view is that he’s been able to get home every six months. It’s gotten easier but I still sorely miss his energy and cheerful company about the place.

With all this in mind, I was not one bit surprised to see new research has found that the emigration of their adult children during the recession has had a negative impact on the mental health of mothers. The research is part The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) that’s being led by Trinity College. It’s looking into the health, social and economic circumstances of 8,000 people aged 50 and over.

The research has found that mothers experienced increased depressive symptoms and greater loneliness than mothers whose children did not emigrate. What’s really interesting is that the research did not find evidence that other major events affecting their adult children – such as unemployment, divorce or separation – had anything like the same negative impact on mothers.

In the year ending April 2006, 36,000 people emigrated from Ireland. By 2009, this number had doubled to 72,000 with numbers peaking at 89,000 in 2013. That’s a lot of unhappy mothers. Interestingly, the research found that with the exception of fathers aged over 65, fathers did not suffer an equivalent decline in mental health following the emigration of one or more of their children.

Speaking about the significance of these findings, one of the study’s authors, Dr Irene Mosca, said that earlier studies on the impact of the recession suggested that older people had been relatively insulated from its worst aspects.

“Our report shows a channel through which the recession has significantly affected the mental health and wellbeing of mothers in particular. Emigration is often discussed in terms of the people who leave, but our study shows that there are real impacts on the people left behind,” said Dr Mosca.

Many of the young people who have emigrated will return and make their homes and futures here. But many more will not. They will do this by choice and be happy to make their homes far away. And that’s perfectly understandable. But in the meantime parents, most of them anyway, will put on a brave face and support their children even though deep down they know Skype is no substitute for a proper hug.