The impact of social change on the decreasing trend of subjective well-being in Chinese adolescents: A cross-temporal meta-analysis

Abstract

Based on the fact that subjective well-being (SWB) is a critical index measuring the mental health status, it is vital to investigate the SWB level of Chinese adolescents and its changes over time. The present research conducted a cross-temporal meta-analysis of 36 studies using the General Well-Being Schedule (GWBS) to explore adolescent SWB (N = 21, 822) from 2004 to 2018. Results showed that the average scores of SWB among Chinese adolescents were negatively associated with the year. This study also found that the scores of SWB were significantly related to nine social indicators from economic condition (per capita GDP, residents’ consumption level, and Gini coefficient), overall threat (crime rate), social connectedness (divorce rate, family size, and urbanization level), and enrollment pressure (junior and senior high school enrollment rate), which indicated that social change may explain the decrease in Chinese adolescents’ SWB level. This study investigated the changes in Chinese adolescents’ SWB over the past 15 years and provided a valuable reference for the intervention of SWB.