Emotionally Healthy Ageing-in-Place: Residential Normalcy, Place Attachment and Mental Well-Being of Elderly Migrants in Shenzhen, China

Within the intertwined processes of migration and population ageing, the emotional experiences of growing old in a new environment and their impact on mental well-being remain underexplored. Drawing on a sample of 413 elderly migrants from two representative migrant-concentrated districts in Shenzhen, China, this study employed structural equation modelling to investigate the pathways linking residential normalcy, place attachment, and mental well-being. The key findings reveal that place attachment serves as a significant mediator in the relationship between residential normalcy and mental well-being, with place identity emerging as the most prominent subcomponent. This relationship is further moderated by both the duration of residence and the quality of the residential environment. Specifically, residential normalcy exerts a direct positive effect on mental well-being only among elderly migrants residing in high-quality neighbourhoods, indicating that residential mastery directly enhances their mental well-being. Furthermore, for late-life arrivals and elderly migrants living in lower-quality neighbourhoods, the development of place attachment through residential mastery proves challenging. In these groups, the mediating influence of place identity assumes greater importance relative to their counterparts. The study demonstrates that fostering place attachment can serve as a critical affective coping strategy for mitigating mental well-being challenges associated with ageing out of place. Therefore, there is a critical need for the development and implementation of policies and interventions aimed at fostering residential normalcy and enhancing place attachment, especially among late-life arrivals and elderly migrants residing in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Such measures are essential to support the transition from ‘ageing out of place’ to healthy ‘ageing in place’ for elderly migrants in urban China.