Due to decreasing fertility and marriage rates, a growing body of research has explored the spread of ‘kinlessness’, defined as having neither a partner nor children, and its effects on the wellbeing of middle-aged and older adults. This study contributes to this stream of research, by integrating family structure types with different forms of parent-child contact frequency (that is, face-to-face or phone contact and digital contact). Using data from the European Social Survey (2020), we estimate ordered logistic regression models on the likelihood of reporting higher levels of happiness among people aged 50 or over. Our preliminary results show that partnered individuals without children and those with sporadic contact with children are more likely to report lower levels of happiness compared to those living with a partner and having frequent contact with children. Lacking a partner is associated with much lower happiness levels. Kinless individuals and those having no partner and infrequent contact with children report the lowest level of happiness, suggesting that both family structure and parent-child relationships matter for the wellbeing of older adults. We find no marked differences between men and women, between traditional and digital forms of contact, or between northern-western and southern-eastern countries.