Abstract
The participation of residents in community affairs not only protects themselves civil rights but also provides an effective way to improve the level of community governance. Most existing literature studied the factors related to residents’ community participation (CP) in terms of either individual or community level, while lacking analysis of those factors resulting from macro level such as pension system (PS). In this article, based on the causal steps approach (CSA) and the generalized structural equation model (GSEM), the relationship and mechanisms between PS and CP are qualified and modeled by using the data given in Chinese social survey in year 2019 (CSS2019). We found that: (1) The PS is positively associated with CP; (2) The PS promotes CP through four mediating variables, i.e., neighborhood network (NN), quality of life (QoL), trust in government (TiG), and political efficacy (PE). Robustness test for obtained results is conducted relying on three strategies, i.e., variable replacement, model replacement, and urban-rural subsamples. The test results showed that the effect of PS on rural resident’ CP is positive and more significant than that of on urban residents. In addition, both theoretical and managerial implications are put forward to help the government administrators improve the PS and promote CP at the same time.
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Data Availability
Data of this research is available with the corresponding author.
Notes
The data is from “Statistical Bulletin on the Development of Civil Affairs in 2022”, Website of the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, 2023-10-13.
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We are grateful to the editor and anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments.
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This study was supported by General projects of national social science fund (No. 22BSH132).
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Appendices
Appendix A variables measure
Variables | Questions | Numerical design |
|---|---|---|
Community participation | Do you been involved in major community decisions in the last two years? | “Yes” =1;“No” =0 |
Pension system | Do you have endowment insurance or pension? | “Yes” =1;“No” =0 |
Neighborhood network | Do you join the online neighborhood group? | “Yes” =1;“No” =0 |
Quality of life | Overall, how satisfied are you with your life? | Answer includes 1 to 10, “Very dissatisfied” =1 “Very satisfied” =10 |
Trust in government | 1.Do you trust the central government? 2.Do you trust local government (county level government)? 3. Do you trust the grassroots government (The villages and towns government)? | “Strongly distrust” =1 “Distrust” =2 “Trust” =3 “Strongly trust” =4 Trust in government = average of Q1 and Q2 and Q3 |
Internal political efficacy | I have the ability and knowledge to comment on politics. | “Strongly agree” =4 “Agree” =3 “Disagree” =2 “Strongly disagree” =1 |
External political efficacy | It’s useless for ordinary people to participate political activities, can’t have a fundamental influence on the government. | “Strongly agree” =1 “Agree” =2 “Disagree” =3 “Strongly disagree” =4 |
Gender | The respondents’ gender. | “Male” =1; “Female” =0 |
Age | The respondent’s year of birth. | 2019 - the respondent’s year |
Education | The respondents’ education level in 2019. | “Illiterate” =0; “Elementary school” =1; “Junior high school” =2 “High school (technical secondary school, high vocational technical school)” =3; “College (Junior college and undergraduate) or graduate” =4 |
Marriage | The marriage status of the respondent in 2019. | “First marriage has a spouse”, “Remarried with a spouse”, “Cohabiting” =1; “Unmarried”, “Divorced”, “Widowed” =0 |
CPC membership | Whether the respondent is a member of the Communist Party of China in 2019. | “Yes” =1; “No” =0 |
Income | The total personal income of respondent in 2018. | The values provided by the respondents. (CN¥100,000/yr) |
Employment | What is your present employment status? | “Employed” =1 “Unemployed” =0 |
Homeowner | What kind of house do you live in now? | “Home ownership” =1; “The others” =0 |
Urban-Rural | The urban-rural attributes of the respondents’ community. | “Urban” =1; “Rural” =2 |
Appendix B comparison of fit between different models
Model | Mediators | AIC | BIC |
|---|---|---|---|
(1) | NN | 3223.24 | 3302.96 |
(2) | NN, QoL | 3213.30 | 3299.67 |
(3) | NN, QoL, TiG | 3205.18 | 3298.19 |
(4) | NN, QoL, TiG, PE | 3184.66 | 3290.96 |
(5) | NN, QoL, TiG, PE, SE | 3184.08 | 3297.02 |
(6) | NN, QoL, TiG, PE, SE, SI | 3185.76 | 3305.34 |
(7) | QoL, TiG, PE | 3204.57 | 3304.22 |
Appendix C robustness test of variable replacing (N = 5674)
(1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | SE | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pension system | 0.320*** | 0.316*** | 0.305*** | 0.289*** | 0.293*** | 0.073 |
NN | 0.325*** | 0.320*** | 0.324*** | 0.313*** | 0.065 | |
Quality of life | 0.031* | 0.017 | 0.013 | 0.016 | ||
TiG | 0.204*** | 0.188*** | 0.052 | |||
IPE | 0.092* | 0.038 | ||||
EPE | 0.087* | 0.036 | ||||
Gender | 0.100 | 0.127 | 0.129 | 0.126 | 0.121 | 0.066 |
Age | 0.033*** | 0.033*** | 0.033*** | 0.033*** | 0.033*** | 0.003 |
Edu. | -0.132*** | -0.126*** | -0.132*** | -0.139*** | -0.150*** | 0.036 |
Marriage | 0.114 | 0.082 | 0.081 | 0.092 | 0.100 | 0.093 |
CPC | 0.711*** | 0.723*** | 0.711*** | 0.678*** | 0.663*** | 0.095 |
Income | -0.034 | -0.035 | -0.038 | -0.035 | -0.035 | 0.038 |
Employment | 0.279*** | 0.273*** | 0.275*** | 0.264*** | 0.268*** | 0.073 |
Homeowner | 0.311*** | 0.301*** | 0.292** | 0.275** | 0.276** | 0.093 |
Urban-Rural | 0.675*** | 0.661*** | 0.661*** | 0.659*** | 0.649*** | 0.070 |
Pseudo R2 | 0.0971 | 0.1008 | 0.1014 | 0.1037 | 0.1053 | 0.1053 |
Appendix D robustness test of model replacing (N = 5674)
(1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | SE | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pension system | 0.173** | 0.169** | 0.157** | 0.146* | 0.150** | 0.058 |
NN | 0.260*** | 0.254*** | 0.256*** | 0.243*** | 0.051 | |
Quality of life | 0.040** | 0.031* | 0.027* | 0.013 | ||
TiG | 0.120** | 0.102* | 0.042 | |||
IPE | 0.120*** | 0.030 | ||||
EPE | 0.088** | 0.029 | ||||
Gender | 0.170*** | 0.194*** | 0.197*** | 0.195*** | 0.191*** | 0.052 |
Age | 0.010*** | 0.010*** | 0.010*** | 0.010*** | 0.011*** | 0.002 |
Edu. | 0.021 | 0.027 | 0.018 | 0.015 | 0.002 | 0.029 |
Marriage | -0.060 | -0.084 | -0.084 | -0.081 | -0.070 | 0.071 |
CPC | 0.682*** | 0.694*** | 0.679*** | 0.660*** | 0.648*** | 0.066 |
Income | 0.016 | 0.017 | 0.015 | 0.016 | 0.017 | 0.014 |
Employment | 0.314*** | 0.306*** | 0.305*** | 0.298*** | 0.299*** | 0.061 |
Homeowner | 0.159* | 0.149* | 0.137 | 0.125 | 0.123 | 0.074 |
Urban-Rural | 0.268*** | 0.262*** | 0.259*** | 0.256*** | 0.246*** | 0.055 |
Pseudo R2 | 0.0963 | 0.1036 | 0.1064 | 0.1088 | 0.1157 | 0.1157 |
Appendix E robustness test of rural and urban subsamples (N = 5674)
Rural | Urban | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
B | SE | B | SE | |
Pension system | 0.437** | 0.165 | 0.165 | 0.162 |
Neighborhood network | 0.310* | 0.151 | 0.590*** | 0.129 |
Quality of life | 0.086* | 0.038 | 0.035 | 0.036 |
Trust in government | 0.330** | 0.123 | 0.127 | 0.112 |
Internal political efficacy | 0.158 | 0.085 | 0.286*** | 0.078 |
External political efficacy | 0.153 | 0.080 | 0.214** | 0.077 |
Gender | 0.457** | 0.160 | 0.263* | 0.131 |
Age | 0.021** | 0.007 | 0.021*** | 0.007 |
Edu. | 0.074 | 0.086 | -0.034 | 0.075 |
Marriage | 0.096 | 0.238 | -0.189 | 0.177 |
CPC membership | 1.280*** | 0.199 | 1.146*** | 0.150 |
Income | 0.075 | 0.065 | 0.026 | 0.027 |
Employment | 0.464* | 0.209 | 0.703*** | 0.160 |
Homeowner | 0.531 | 0.372 | 0.267 | 0.168 |
Pseudo R2 | 0.1352 | 0.1023 | ||
Number of obs. | 1988 | 3686 | ||
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Jian, J., He, M. How pension system contributes to community participation in China: a serial mediation model of neighborhood network, quality of life, trust in government, and political efficacy. Curr Psychol 43, 14273–14288 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05450-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05450-y