The closer, the better? The impact of generational residential distance on older adults' mental health: evidence from China.

Introduction: Against the backdrop of China's accelerating population aging, the geographic separation of older adult parents from their adult children has become increasingly common. While intergenerational proximity is widely assumed to benefit older adults' well‑being, empirical evidence on the optimal distance and its underlying mechanisms remains inconclusive. This study investigates the direct and indirect effects of intergenerational residential distance on the mental health of Chinese older adults, with a particular focus on the mediating roles of financial support and contact‑based emotional support. Methods: We utilized data from the 2023 China Longitudinal Study of Aging Social Survey, a nationally representative sample of community‑dwelling older adults. Intergenerational residential distance was categorized into four levels: cohabitation, same village/neighborhood committee, same city (different neighborhood), and different cities/provinces. Mental health was measured using a validated composite scale of depressive symptoms and life satisfaction. Mediation analyses were conducted via structural equation modeling, controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, health status, and social network variables. Results: Contrary to the conventional proximity assumption, older adults whose children lived in the same city (but not in the same household or immediate neighborhood) reported significantly better mental health than those in cohabitation or very close proximity. The mediation analysis revealed that children's financial support exerted a robust positive mediating effect, whereas contact‑based emotional support showed a negative mediating effect. Notably, the negative indirect effect through emotional support was substantially larger in magnitude than the positive indirect effect through financial support, offsetting the total benefit of proximity. Discussion: These findings suggest that a moderate degree of intergenerational separation-sufficient to reduce daily frictions and role conflicts, yet close enough for practical assistance-may be more conducive to older adult mental health than over‑closeness. The stronger negative mediation via emotional support implies that frequent in‑person interactions, when accompanied by intergenerational disagreements or excessive caregiving demands, can undermine psychological well‑being. For older adults with adequate self‑care capacity, maintaining a moderate residential distance appears to preserve emotional bonding while minimizing daily conflict. Policy implications include the need for differentiated community‑based services that cater to diverse living arrangements, alongside targeted financial subsidy programs to offset the costs of separate residence, thereby supporting healthy and active aging in China's rapidly changing demographic landscape.