Culture Matters? Family Norms, Living Arrangements, and Loneliness in China

• We examine how family cultural norms moderate the relationship between living arrangements and loneliness among older Chinese adults. • We combine nationally representative survey data and novel historical records of family genealogies to test our research hypotheses. • Our results show that older Chinese whose living arrangements diverge from strong local family norms, especially those not living with adult children, report significantly higher levels of loneliness. This vulnerability is more pronounced in regions where traditional family culture is stronger. • In contrast, older adults whose living arrangements conform to local family norms experience consistently low levels of loneliness, regardless of cultural context.