‘Peace in a Thatched Hut—that is Happiness’: Subjective Wellbeing Among Peasants in Rural China

Abstract

China, Personal wellbeing index, Subjective wellbeing,

Subjective Well-Being and Its Association with Subjective Health Status, Age, Sex, Region, and Socio-economic Characteristics in a Chinese Population Study

“…This is similar to previous studies (Appleton and Song 2008;Davey et al 2007;Dolan and Metcalfe 2012;Graham et al 2011;Jiang et al 2012;Mukuria and Brazier 2013). Furthermore, in our study we also investigated the association between five different dimensions of health and SWB and found the strongest association for the anxiety/depression dimension.…”

“…However, although there is a large income gap between urban and rural areas (Davey et al 2007;Knight et al 2009;Knight and Gunatilaka 2010a), we found that the SWB was not higher in the urban counties for the eastern and middle areas. For the eastern area SWB was even higher in the rural than in the urban county.…”

“…There are several possible explanations for this. First, family and community support is stronger in rural areas compared to urban areas, and rural residents feel better about personal safety (Davey et al 2007). Second, during the process of rapid economic progress, urban residents have been influenced more by certain problems: for example, the withdrawal of institutional support from publicly owned work units, the risk of unemployment and the increasing gap between different social classes (Appleton and Song 2008;Jiang et al 2012;Knight and Gunatilaka 2010a).…”

“…In rural areas, due to limited information and narrow reference groups (people from the same village), residents might have lower expectations. Meanwhile, income, living and health conditions have increased over time and there is an expectation for improvement in the future as well; therefore, rural residents may have a positive perception of their relative status (Davey et al 2007;Knight et al 2009). In contrast to this, urban residents might have more information and broader reference groups (at a provincial or national level).…”

Happiness and Unhappiness in the Developing World: Life Satisfaction Among Sex Workers, Dump-Dwellers, Urban Poor, and Rural Peasants in Nicaragua

“…Contrary to the Camfield et al (2009) finding of higher happiness in urban areas, Davey et al (2009) found that participants from a remote farming village in China reported life satisfaction that was comparable to urban Chinese samples. Their entire village sample had a low socio-economic status.…”