Subjective Wellbeing of Chinese People: A Multifaceted View

Bian, Yanjie; Zhang, Lei; Yang, Jing; Guo, Xiaoxian; Lei, Ming

doi:10.1007/s11205-014-0626-6

Cited by 49 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…The results are consistent with Diener's (2015) finding that wealthier people are happier on average when wealth is measured within countries. They are also consistent with the empirical data collected by Bian et al (2015) and Wu and Tam (2015) showing that, within China, people who have higher socio-economic status are happier than their counterparts.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 88%

“…The effect of city size on individual life satisfaction remains the same: respondents residing in cities with populations between 200,000 and 500,000 are still more satisfied with life than those in the other two categories. The impact of county-level GDP per capital on individual life satisfaction is consistent with the findings of the existing research on happiness (Bian et al, 2015;Wu & Tam, 2015), which shows that the impact is stronger when economic development is low and gradually decreases as economic development increases, following a reverse U-shaped pattern (see Fig. A1).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 87%

“…The first wave of research on life satisfaction in China focused on the impact of individual attributes (Appleton & Song, 2008;Knight & Gunatilaka, 2010;Knight, Song, & Gunatilaka, 2009;Liu, Xiong, & Su, 2012), and confirmed the key role of age, gender, and income (Bian et al, 2015;Qiu & Li, 2012). More recently, researchers have become increasingly interested in evaluating individual attributes within a larger context.…”

Section: Researching Life Satisfaction In Chinamentioning

confidence: 94%

“…The shifts arose from changes in relative income and reference groups, rapid urbanization, and rising urban insecurity. A recent study on SWB by Bian et al (2015), based on the 2010 China Survey of Social Change conducted in 12 western provinces, also found that people's assessments of happiness tend to be higher in richer and more developed provinces (although the level of provincial development does not directly affect the relationship between income and happiness). Drawing on six waves of the Chinese General Social Survey from 2003 to 2011, Wu and Tam (2015) also observed a positive effect of socio-economic status on individuals' happiness, but only in provinces with lower levels of economic development.…”

Section: Researching Life Satisfaction In Chinamentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Yet, with the exception of geographers, few scholars have systematically developed models and theories that attempt to look at the interaction of geographic variation and individual attributes when examining subjective well-being (Bian, Zhang, Yang, Guo, & Lei, 2015;Diener, 2000;Dolan, Peasgood, & White, 2008;Layard, 2010;McGillivray & Clarke, 2006;Qiu & Li, 2012;van Hoorn, 2008). And when scholarship does add in the larger context, they favor the impact of economic development as measured by gross domestic product (GDP) per capita (e.g., Easterlin, 2013;Easterlin, McVey, Swite, Sawangfa, & Zweig, 2010;Stevenson & Wolfers, 2008;Veenhoven & Vergunst, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Life satisfaction in urbanizing China: The effect of city size and pathways to urban residency

Chen

Davis

et al. 2015

Cities

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a b s t r a c tAlthough Durkheim, Simmel, and other early social theorists posited causal links between urban life and individual despair or distrust, most contemporary analyses of subjective well-being attribute variations primarily to individual characteristics. However, China's recent warp-speed urbanization requires a more dynamic and multi-level analysis that simultaneously models individual and geographic attributes. Using a representative survey conducted in 2011 of adults living in urban China, we find that, while age, marital status, and household wealth have an impact on life satisfaction, the characteristics of the surrounding county or city district, the size of the city, as well as the route by which an individual became an urban resident, often have an independent impact. Our results indicate that after controlling for individual socio-demographic characteristics, health status, and household wealth, the new urbanites (rural-to-urban migrants and in situ urbanized rural residents) who settle in cities with urban populations between 200,000 and 500,000 are more satisfied with their lives than those who settle in either larger or smaller cities. We argue that in China, where urban centers vary greatly in size, research on individual life satisfaction should factor in the characteristics of the urban location and the means by which individuals become urban residents. Our work suggests a new research and policy direction for small cities undergoing urbanization and their future trends.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 87%