The Influence of Perception of Social Equality and Social Trust on Subjective Well-Being Among Rural Chinese People: The Moderator Role of Education.

Jilun Zhao,Shuang Gao

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.731982

Abstract

The present study explored the moderation effect of education on the relationship between the perception of social equality and social trust and individuals’ subjective well-being (SWB) in rural China. Data were derived from the nationally representative cross-sectional Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS). After handling missingness, 5,911 eligible participants (age 18 years or older) from the 2015 wave were included in the model. We used logistic regression to test the hypotheses. We first tested the effect of the perception of social equality and social trust on SWB. Then we added an interaction term to test the moderation effect of education in this relationship. The results show that education had a significant moderating effect on the association between general social trust and SWB. While had no significant effect on the association between the perception of social equality, special social trust and SWB. The perception of social equality had significant effects in both groups. The relationship between special social trust and SWB in both groups was not significant. For the more educated group, general social trust had a significant and positive effect on SWB.

Highlights

In recent years, subjective well-being (SWB) has gained much attention
For fully testing the research hypotheses, we examined the effect of special social trust on SWB without adding general social trust in the model, the results show that special social trust had significant influence on SWB without adding general social trust (p < 0.05, OR = 1.020)
For fully testing the theoretical hypotheses, we examined the effect of special social trust on SWB without control general social trust, the results showed that special social trust affects SWB significantly without added general social trust

Summary

Introduction

Subjective well-being (SWB) has gained much attention. SWB contributes to lifelong health (Ortega et al, 2010; Boehm et al, 2011). As a public health goal, SWB defined as the cognitive judgment and affective evaluation of one’s life (Cruwys et al, 2013; Forsman et al, 2013). The evaluations included emotional reactions to events and the cognitive judgments to satisfaction and fulfillment (Diener et al, 2002). From this perspective, SWB is a multidimensional concept that contains the experiences of pleasant emotion, lower level of negative moods and higher life satisfaction (Diener et al, 2002). SWB has been frequently examined by extensive research, with evidence indicating that some demographic factors, such as age, gender, educational attainment, socioeconomic status, income, and marriage status significantly affect SWB; an individual’s SWB is strongly shaped by their cognition to the surrounding life environment, Equality and Trust on Well-Being such as their social trust in others and perception of social equality (Young et al, 2004; Agampodi et al, 2015; Flores et al, 2018; Xiao et al, 2020)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion