Aim To reate of a modification of the psychodiagnostic technique in accordance with the Maslach-Jackson burnout model for studying the emotional burnout in the family and identifying the features of emotional burnout in the family of the "devastated nest". Materials and methods . The validity and reliability of the author's modification of the method of diagnosing emotional burn-out in the family was carried out at different stages of the family's life cycle: in the young families, until the birth of the firstborn (100 families), in families with adolescents (151 families) and at the stage of the "devastated nest" (122 families). The total psychometric sample was 897 people, among them 746 men and women (375 couples) and 151 teenagers. The check of discriminatory validity was carried out by means of the methodology of diagnosing the level of emotional burnout by V. Boyko. The convergent validity was verified using the method "Family-conditioned mental states", which is aimed at identifying psycho-traumatic conditions: general dissatisfaction, neuropsychiatric stress and family anxiety, which characterize the respondent's well-being in the family. Psychological peculiarities of the emotional burn-out of the family of the “devastated nest” were carried out with the method of studying the value-semantic crisis of the life of S.V.Poltavsky. The research sample comprised 244 women and men from 122 families of the "devastated nest". Results Validity and reliability of the method, which has three scales: emotional exhaustion in the funeral, depersonalization of the family role, reduction of satisfaction with family life, was proved. The peculiarities of experience of family emotional burn-out among the members of families of the "devastated nest" were revealed by revealing positive relations with indicators of experience of the crisis of the middle of life. Conclusions testing of a modified method for diagnosing familial emotional burn - out has shown its validity, reliability and efficiency as a tool for studying emotional exhaustion, depersonalization of family role and reduction of satisfaction with family life of an individual. Psychological content of family emotional burn - out is manifested in positive relationships with negative family-conditioned states - dissatisfaction, anxiety and nervous-psychic tension in the family. It is determined that family members of the "devastated nest" family emotional burnout is associated with the experience of the midlife crisis - the feeling of uselessness to other people and low inclusiveness in the event of life, loss of meaning, the collapse of ideals, fatigue and negative feelings.