Abstract
This paper reports the most recent subjective wellbeing (SWB) assessments by the respondents of the China Survey of Social Change. Of the total 10,927 respondents, 44.2 % are “always happy” and others vary from “sometimes happy” to “not happy at all”. To explain variation in SWB, the authors offer a multifaceted view taking into account the roles that personal health, demographic attributes, socioeconomic statuses, and the networks and relationships of social integration play in SWB. It is found that SWB assessments are higher for women and older persons than for men and younger persons, respectively, and they increase with improved physical and mental health, more educational and financial resources, greater social participation, wider social networks, and greater trust in others and institutions. Economic development, ethnic cultures, and religious beliefs are important factors of SWB assessments.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 75-92 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| Journal | Social Indicators Research |
| Volume | 121 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 2015 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The research of this paper was funded by a “985” grant through the Institute for Empirical Social Science Research (IESSR) at Xi’an Jiaotong University, by a key project grant from China’s Social Science Foundation (11AZD022), and by a centrally-important project from China’s Social Science Foundation (13&ZD177). The authors are grateful to the participants in the China Survey of Social Change analyzed in this paper, and to Jieming Chen, Harley Dickinson, Yaming Hao, Peter Lee, Ming-Chang Tsai, and a unanimous reviewer for their helpful comments on the earlier drafts.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2014, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.
Keywords
- China
- Happiness
- Subjective wellbeing
