Living arrangement between parents and children is crucial to family support to the elderly

and therefore is a key factor to ensure their subjective well-being in old age. This paper

based on the survey data of JM District and LX City in Shandong Province

empirically analyzes the impact of living arrangement on people’s subjective well-being in old age and its mechanism. The results show that living arrangement significantly influences the subjective well-being of the elderly

and compared with those whose children all live in other cities

the level of subjective well-being of the elderly who do not live with their children but have at least one child living locally and those who live with their children is significantly higher. Emotional communication plays a mediating role between living arrangement and subjective well-being of the elderly

and individual experience and social experience play a mediating role between emotional communication and subjective well-being of the elderly. Therefore

family support needs to be optimized from the aspects of housing security policy

work-family balance policy and carrying forward excellent traditional filial piety culture

so as to effectively improve the subjective well-being of the elderly.