Social capital and subjective well-being of rural women in China

ABSTRACT

Rural women in China are facing a difficult life situation. They are suffering from both physical and psychological pains. This addresses attention to their mental health and subjective well-being. Based on the Social Capital Theory, this study aims to present the subjective well-being of rural women in China, and explore the related factors. Using the CGSS 2015 survey data, 2355 rural female samples were extracted. T-test, Explanatory Factor Analysis, and stepwise analysis based on the ordered logistic regression model were used. The results showed that the interpersonal interaction factor in social network dimension, the overall trust factor and bonding trust factor in social trust dimension were significantly associated with subjective well-being. The social norms dimension had a weak correlation with subjective well-being. Furthermore, the study also explored the role of the sociodemographic variables and other potential factors. The results echoed to ‘happiness-income paradox’.     

The Impact of Internet Use on Residents’ Subjective Well-Being: An Empirical Analysis Based on National Data

Internet use has become an indispensable part of people’s daily lives, and the relationship between Internet use and residents’ subjective well-being is receiving increasing attention from researchers. However, the existing literature on the relationship between Internet use and residents’ subjective well-being is still controversial and inconclusive, and there has been relatively little discussion of the mechanisms by which Internet use affects well-being. On the basis of data from the China General Social Survey 2015 (CGSS2015), this paper provides an empirical analysis of the impact of Internet usage on residents’ subjective well-being. The study finds that while Internet use had no significant impact on the well-being of residents compared to non-use, frequency of Internet usage did significantly improve subjective well-being. On this basis, we tested the mechanisms by which Internet use affects residents’ well-being through the three channels of the personal income effect, the human capital effect and the social capital effect. The findings partially verify the hypothesis of the mediating effect of social capital between Internet use and residents’ subjective well- being, but do not verify the hypothesis of the moderating effect of personal income and human capital. Compared with previous studies, this paper is innovative in the following three ways: it uses the latest available representative national microdata, which is better able to reflect recent Internet usage and its impact on residents’ subjective well-being; on the basis of existing research on the impact of Internet usage on residents’ well-being, it analyzes the specific mechanisms through which Internet use affects well-being, using the moderating effect model and the mediating effect model to make up for the shortcomings of existing research on the impact mechanism; and it applies the Bioprobit model to deal with the potential endogeneity of key explanatory variables, using a variety of model estimation methods to obtain more robust estimation results.     

Sense of coherence and social support – Resources for subjective well-being and health of the aged in Finland

In this study we explored if the psychological and social resources of aged people (over 75 years) in Finland predict their subjective well-being and experienced state of health (n = 348). Data were taken from a larger Finnish survey on living conditions. Based on previous research on younger people we formed a model where morbidity, experienced quality of social support and sense of coherence together with economic resources are the predictors of both experienced state of health and subjective well-being. LISREL (8) path analysis was used to test the model. The model providing the most parsimonious explanation of the data suggested that a strong sense of coherence and high experienced quality of social relationships are strongly related to subjective well-being. Experienced state of health was associated with morbidity and subjective well-being, but there was no significant relationship between subjective well-being and morbidity.     

Informal support and psychological well-being of older Chinese community residents

Social support is a critical factor in the well-being of older Chinese adults. Studies have found positive relationships between social support and psychological well-being. The findings, however, vary by kind of support. This article examines the relationships among objective and subjective social support from family members and close friends and three measures of psychological well-being, including loneliness, depression, and life satisfaction. The study sample consisted of 298 elderly Chinese community residents from Chongqing, China. The relationships between objective social support from family and friends and psychological well-being were, for the most part, not statistically significant. The relationships between subjective social support and well-being were fairly robust and statistically significant.     

Child-Report Data and Assessment of the Social Environment in Schools

OBJECTIVES: This study tested the quality of data collected with the online ESSP for Children from a diverse sample of 1,172 third through fifth graders. METHODS: Mplus confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) procedures for ordinal and clustered data were used. RESULTS: Of 80 original items, 61 loaded on 13 dimensions in a first-order model that had good fit in three random subsamples. Children in grades 3 through 5 may not be reliable reporters about neighborhood adults' caring. However, 12 statistically sound and independent dimensions related to school, peers, family, and well-being were obtained. CONCLUSIONS: The ESSP for Children provides school staff with quality data to use in conjunction with family and teacher ESSP data to guide intervention choices in schools.     

Exploring the Latent Structures of Psychological Constructs in Social Development Using the Dimensional–Categorical Spectrum

This paper provides an introduction to a recently developed conceptual framework—the dimensional–categorical spectrum—for utilizing general factor mixture models to explore the latent structures of psychological constructs. This framework offers advantages over traditional latent variable models that usually employ either continuous latent factors or categorical latent class variables to characterize the latent structure and require an a priori assumption about the underlying nature of the construct as either purely dimension or purely categorical. The modeling process is discussed in detail and then illustrated with data on the delinquency items of Achenbach's child behavior checklist from a sample of children in the National Adolescent and Child Treatment Study.     

Estimating subjective probabilities

Subjective probabilities play a central role in many economic decisions and act as an immediate confound of inferences about behavior, unless controlled for. Several procedures to recover subjective probabilities have been proposed, but in order to recover the correct latent probability one must either construct elicitation mechanisms that control for risk aversion, or construct elicitation mechanisms which undertake “calibrating adjustments” to elicited reports. We illustrate how the joint estimation of risk attitudes and subjective probabilities can provide the calibration adjustments that theory calls for. We illustrate this approach using data from a controlled experiment with real monetary consequences to the subjects. This allows the observer to make inferences about the latent subjective probability, under virtually any well-specified model of choice under subjective risk, while still employing relatively simple elicitation mechanisms.     

Social protection for happiness? The impact of social pension reform on subjective well-being of the Korean elderly

Expanding the scope of the traditional indicators used to assess economic progress with measures of subjective well-being has been of growing importance in policy modeling. A recent Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi report argued that policy decisions and welfare evaluations should be approached from a broader perspective on well-being and take into account metrics derived from self-reports of living conditions. To this end, we evaluate the efficacy of the 2014 social pension reform in South Korea using various measures of subjective well-being. The South Korean government introduced a basic old-age pension in 2008 and doubled its monthly benefits in 2014. The reform in 2014 represents one of the largest social welfare expansions in South Korean history, with an aim to improve seniors’ quality of life. Using data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging, we estimate a matched difference-in-differences model that isolates the causal effects of the benefit increase attributable to the reform. Results show that the reform was associated with an average of 4.8–5.7% increase in financial satisfaction among beneficiaries, and that this correlation was more pronounced for retirees, seniors above age 70, and those at the bottom of wealth distribution. However, there is insufficient evidence to conclude that satisfaction with health status, parent-child relationship, and overall quality of life has improved in response. Our findings are in contrast to the past evidence on objective welfare gains associated with pension expansion. Taken together this study calls for the use of self-reported well-being data in policy evaluation.     

Factorial Validity of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS) in a Sample of Spanish Social Workers

Burnout has been considered important to understanding the well-being of social workers and the quality of the services they render. Despite the ample international usage of the Maslach Burnout Inventory, its psychometric properties have come into question and alternative models of measuring the inventory have been suggested. The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties and the applicability of a Spanish version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS) in an incidental sample of 947 social workers. Three alternative models of the MBI-HSS were tested for the purpose of identifying the most suitable model for measuring burnout in Spain. The confirmatory factor analysis supported the theory that the model of three correlated factors was superior to alternative models of one and two factors. The structure of three factors (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment) and 19 items showed the best adjustment and a suitable internal consistency of the dimensions of the MBI-HSS. These findings demonstrate that the MBI-HSS has validity and reliability acceptable for measuring burnout in social workers, providing valuable information to the managers of social services in order to reduce burnout among social workers. The limitations of the study and recommendations for future investigation are emphasized.     

主观幸福感结构——情感要素和认知要素二元分类图式的诊断

传统生活质量意义上的主观幸福感,是由以情感要素为测量取向的快乐感和以认知要素为测量取向的满意度     

Deprivation and the well-being of children and young people in Taiwan

This article draws on data from the second wave of the Taiwan Panel Study of Children and Youth survey to explore the relationship between deprivation and subjective well-being among children and young people in Taiwan using a child-centric approach. The survey data allows the deprivation status of disadvantaged children and young people to be identified using information that they themselves have provided. The results indicate that item-specific deprivation rates and the overall intensity of deprivation are generally higher among children. Further analysis reveals that deprivation is associated with lower levels of subjective well-being and poorer educational outcomes among both groups.     

Evaluation of Early Adolescent Subjective Well-Being in Terms of Submissive Behavior and Self-Esteem

This research aimed to investigate the correlation between subjective well-being and submissive behavior and self-esteem in students in the early adolescent period. The research was completed with a relational design. The research group comprised sixth, seventh, and eighth class middle school students in the spring term of the 2015–2016 academic year in Trabzon province. Data collection tools included a Personal Information Form, Submissive Behavior Scale, Two-Dimensional Self-Respect Scale (Self-Liking and Self-Confidence Scale), Satisfaction with Life Scale and Positive and Negative Affect Schedule. The results of the correlation analysis found a significant positive correlation between subjective well-being and self-esteem (r?=?0.54, p?<?0.01; 95% CI [0.44, 0.61], Cohen’s d?=?1.28); however, the correlation between subjective well-being and submissive behavior was not significant (r?=?–0.02, p?>?0.05; 95% CI [–0.11, 0.09], Cohen’s d?=?0.04). There was a significant negative correlation identified between self-esteem and submissive behavior (r?=?–0.10, p < 0.05; 95% CI [–0.20, –0.01], Cohen’s d?=?–0.20). Additionally, according to our findings, self-esteem accounts for 29% of the variation in well-being (F(1, 367)?=?150.79, p?<?0.001). The contribution of self-esteem to the subjective well-being explanatory model was found to be significant (sz?=?0.54, p?<?0.001).     

Overall Successful Aging: Its Factorial Structure and Predictive Factors

As the concept of successful ageing (SA) tends to take different meanings among researchers, there is a lack of consensus on how to measure SA. In order to address this gap, the present study aims to explore the factor structure of SA involving SA indicators presented in the literature. Using Americans' Changing Lives study (ACL), a second-order confirmatory factor analysis on factors constituting an overall SA measure and a SEM regression model to examine the predictive factors of the overall SA measure were estimated. A second-order confirmatory factor model including three latent constructs of SA – Physical Domain (diseases, functional health, and physical activity), Mental Domain (depression, self-efficacy, and cognitive impairment), and Social Domain (formal social integration, informal social integration, and social support) – fits the data properly. The findings of a SEM regression model replicates the findings of previous SA research, suggesting the overall SA latent construct is a valid measure for SA.     

A Study of Youth Services Networks from a Political-Economy Perspective

ABSTRACT

Volunteers play a vital role in modern societies by boosting the labor force within both the public and private sectors. While the factors that may lead people to volunteer have been investigated in a number of studies, the means by which volunteering contributes to the well-being of such volunteers is poorly understood. It has been suggested through studies that focus on the absence of depression in volunteers that self-esteem and sense of control may be major determinants of the increased well-being reported by volunteers. This is consistent with the homeostatic model of subjective well-being, which proposes that self-esteem, optimism, and perceived control act as buffers that mediate the relationship between environmental experience and subjective well-being (SWB). Using personal well-being as a more positive measure of well-being than absence of depression, this study further explored the possible mediating role of self-esteem, optimism, and perceived control in the relationship between volunteer status and well-being. Participants (N = 1,219) completed a 97-item survey as part of the Australian Unity Wellbeing project. Variables measured included personal well-being, self-esteem, optimism, and a number of personality and psychological adjustment factors. Analyses revealed that perceived control and optimism, but not self-esteem, mediated the relationship between volunteer status and personal well-being.     

Social Support and its Correlation with Loneliness and Subjective Well-being: A Cross-cultural Study of Older Nepalese Adults

Population aging in Nepal is a recent phenomenon, due more to demographic changes than to socio-economic development. The study had three goals: to analyze the social support exchange among elderly men and women; to discover the main sources of support in loneliness and subjective well-being in the elderly; and to study the cross-cultural differences in support among elderly Chhetri ( N  = 137, mean age = 69.1 [7.2] years) and Newar people ( N  = 195, mean age = 68.8 [7.7] years) in one ward in Kathmandu. The data were collected using face-to-face interviews. The dependent variables were loneliness and subjective well-being (SWB). The results for both ethnic Chhetri and Newar respondents show that their major support comes from their children living in the same household and their spouses. I conclude that the sources of social support and social support exchange are similar between the two castes/ethnicities and that there are no cross-cultural differences between them in terms of support for loneliness and SWB-life stability, although there are cross-cultural differences in their SWB-life satisfaction. Providing social support to friends and neighbors appears to be related to less loneliness and increased SWB in both castes/ethnicities.     

Structure and Psychometric Properties of the Father Involvement Scale Used in a Retrospective Pretest–Posttest Design

Abstract

Several programs that address responsible fatherhood exist; however, these programs need strategic evaluation and appropriate tools to measure success of the programs. The goal of this research was to understand the structure and psychometric properties of a father involvement measure used to assess the change in parenting and co-parenting behaviors of fathers in a child welfare program. Analyses used secondary data from a father parenting program, with a retrospective pretest–posttest design. Participants were fathers (N?=?361) who attended a parenting program in three large counties in the North Texas region. Missing data diagnosis and exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed on 13 items to investigate scale structure and psychometric properties. The following three factors with adequate to good internal consistency emerged: self-efficacy, parenting (emotional and physical support), and co-parenting skills. Fit indices showed good model fit for pretest items and a moderate fit for posttest items. The survey instrument demonstrates potential to be adapted to diverse populations, other languages and cultures to further expand program components. Based on the findings, future research should utilize more items to enhance the alpha reliability of the scales. Furthermore, revised scales can be validated across diverse populations based on socioeconomic, ethnicity, and cultural backgrounds.     

相对收入与主观幸福感:检验农民工的多重参照群体

尽管社会经济地位低于城市居民，农民工的主观幸福感却更高。这种客观经济地位与主观福利评判的不一致有两种解释：同质性参照群体假设和向上流动期望假设，暗示农民工在进行社会比较时会选择不同的参照群体。基于一项大规模全国代表性的调查数据，本文通过建构农民工的多个参照群体检验了上述假设，结果验证了同质性参照群体假设：控制个人收入后，同省其他农民的平均收入越高，农民工的生活满意度越低；加入农民的平均收入后，农民工相对于城市就业居民的生活满意度优势消失，甚至转为劣势。向上流动期望假设未获支持：城市就业居民的平均收入对农民工的生活满意度没有显著影响，而且这样的“零效应”可能并非由于向上流动期望的压抑影响造成的。     

流动人口的人际信任、社会支持和幸福感的比较及相互关系研究——以温州为例

比较了流动人口人际信任、社会支持、幸福感在人口学变量上的差异,并探讨了三者间的关系。结果发现:(1)在人际信任变量上,男性显著高于女性;25～30岁流动人口在人际信任上的得分最高,显著高于研究中的其它年龄组;在社会支持变量上,外出打工5年以上的流动人口要显著高于1年及以下(p<0.05)及1～2年(p<0.05);18～25岁流动人口社会支持得分最低,显著低于其它年龄组。在幸福感变量上,男性显著高于女性;签订劳动合同的流动人口显著高于没有签订劳动合同者。(2)在人际信任、社会支持和幸福感关系中,客观支持和主观支持对人际信任与幸福感之间的关系存在一定的调节作用。     

主观幸福感的经济学分析

对幸福的追求是一个古老而时尚的话题,现代主观幸福感的研究始于20世纪50年代。主观幸福感具有主观性、整体性和相对稳定性的特点。积极情感、消极情感和对生活满意度的体验构成了幸福的主要方面,财富、健康、婚姻家庭、教育等因素都是通过影响被试的情感体验和满意度评价从而影响人们的主观幸福感的。     

Adolescents at risk of mental health problems in the COVID-19 pandemic: A prospective population-based study of the effects of government mandates and school closures

There is increasing evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic has had substantial mental health impacts for adolescents. Yet, few definitive studies have investigated which adolescents were at higher risk of poor mental health and well-being during the pandemic. Data were drawn from the Childhood to Adolescence Transition Study, a prospective cohort study of students in Australia (N = 1211). Prevalence of mental health outcomes (depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, self-harm and good subjective well-being) was estimated in school Years 5–12, where Years 11 (2020) and 12 (2021) coincided with the pandemic. The age- and sex-adjusted relative risk of each mental health outcome for each priority group during the pandemic were estimated. During the pandemic, over 50% of study participants reported depressive symptoms, and one quarter reported anxiety symptoms. There was a decrease in good subjective well-being compared with pre-pandemic years, while self-harm prevalence remained similar. History of mental health problems, school disengagement and frequent peer victimisation increased the risk of experiencing mental health problems during the pandemic. Schools play a central role in maintaining the mental health and good subjective well-being of students, and this is particularly important during periods of social disruption, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.