Exploring the relationship between life quality and the perceptions of living-environment crises

Abstract

Background Two common consequences of rapid economic development in developing countries are the improvement of residents’ quality of life but also environmental destruction. This study focuses on the relationship between residents’ perceptions on the life quality and their perception of environmental crises in China. The purpose of this study is to answer why people in developing countries have relatively high tolerance for environmental pollution caused by rapid economic development. Methods Using ordered logistic regression models and the multi-level mixed effect ordinal regression model, and the data of the 2014 China Labour-force Dynamics Survey, 10,849 responses were analysed to evaluate public perceptions of living-environment crises. Specifically, perceptions relating to the following four living-environment crises were evaluated: (1) (un)employment; (2) public safety; (3) infectious disease; (4) pollution. Results We found that respondents with higher levels of subjective well-being, social status, and sense of neighbourhood security expressed a lower level of concern for living-environment crises. The concern of urban residents was also significantly higher than that of rural residents for living-environment crisis. For rural respondents, neighbourhood population density was negatively correlated with the perception of employment, public safety, and infectious disease crises. For urban respondents, neighbourhood population density was positively correlated to the perception of public safety and pollution crises, and neighbourhood average income was positively correlated to the perception of infectious disease and pollution risks. Conclusions Rapid economic development has greatly improved people’s well-being, but it has also produced many environmental pollution problems. To a certain extent, the improvement of the well-being will alleviate people’s worries about environmental pollution caused by the development of economy.

WITHDRAWN: Factors Influencing Residents' Satisfaction Under Multiple Sources of Environmental Pollution: A Structural Equation Modelling Approach

“…The other perception is living-environment crises (e.g. pollution, infectious disease) between urban and rural residents (Xiaoyun Li et al, 2021). In contrast, living locations led to a positive in uence, meaning the farther the living location, the higher the satisfaction.…”

“…In another study, urban residents expressed signi cantly greater concern about living-environment crises (e.g. pollution, infectious disease) than rural residents (Xiaoyun Li et al, 2021). This may be attributed to a higher level of subjective well-being, social status and awareness of the former compared to the latter.…”

“…According to the World Bank, the global MSW has increased from 0.68 billion tons annually in 2002 (Hoornweg & Bhada-Tata, 2012) to 2.01 billion tons in 2016 and is expected to rise up to 3.4 billion tons per year by 2050 (Kaza et al, 2018). Humans exploit nature for the living and simultaneously suffer from adverse health effects due to environmental destruction caused by their activities (Xiaoyun Li et al, 2021).…”

Spatial pattern of environmental perception and place attachment in a diverse socio-economic context: the case of Gauteng province, South Africa

“…Place attachment, in particular, has received considerable attention in the literature because it is seen to have a strong bearing on environmental concern and behaviour [1,3,10,37,38]. Place attachment has been conceived as a two-dimensional concept: one being a tangible one relating to the attachment to physical features, and the other being a psychological or social component, wherein people get attached to intangible, meaningful elements [39].…”

Professional self-realization of disabled persons in an urban environment

“…Of the most pressing problems related to the one considered in this article, it is necessary to highlight: the impact of urban transformations on the well-being of citizens [8]; the relationship between income and subjective well-being [9]; the relationship between the quality of life and life crises [10]; social support and well-being in the student environment [11]; the impact of work on life satisfaction [12]; various aspects of well-being in the era of a pandemic [13][14][15]. It should be noted separately that we deliberately avoided studying the problem of the pandemic due to the fact that the data collection was carried out before the Covid-19 pandemic became a global phenomenon.…”