In the current study, GAD-1 (Feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge) and GAD-3 (Worrying too much about different things) emerged as crucial bridge symptoms in the anxiety-depression network among empty nesters, aligning with previous findings in studies of older adults living alone (Chang et al., 2025) and elderly populations during the COVID-19 pandemic (Ventura-León et al., 2022). This evidence concerns the gene GAD1 and depressive symptom measurement.