‘Kinlessness’, parent–child contact and subjective wellbeing among middle-aged and older adults in Europe

As fertility decreases and singlehood increases, research is growing on the spread of ‘kinlessness’ – commonly defined as having neither a partner nor children – and its impact on the wellbeing of middle-aged and older adults. However, the beneficial impact of having partners and children may depend on the quality of those relationships. This study contributes to this research by integrating family structure types with different forms of parent–child contact – face-to-face, phone and digital. Using cross-sectional data from the European Social Survey tenth round (2020–2022) on 24,262 adults aged 50 or over in 30 European countries, we estimate ordered logistic regression models on the likelihood of reporting higher levels of happiness. The results show that men and women without a partner or children have lower levels of happiness compared to those that have both, with unpartnered parents occupying an intermediate position. Kinless men along with unpartnered parents with sporadic contact with children report the lowest level of happiness. Among unpartnered men, having frequent contact with children is associated with higher happiness levels than having infrequent interactions with them. We find no substantial differences between men and women in other family structure types, between different contact types or across European country clusters. The findings highlight the importance of considering both the presence/absence of children and the quality of their relationships in the analysis of middle-aged and older parents’ wellbeing.