Abstract
This paper examines the consequences of China’s dramatic socioeconomic and political transformations for individual subjective well-being (SWB) from 1990 to 2007. Although many still consider China to be a collectivist country, and some scholars have argued that collectivist factors would be important predictors of individual well-being in such a context, our analysis demonstrates that the Chinese are increasingly prioritizing individualist factors in assessments of their own happiness and life satisfaction thus substantiating descriptions of their society as increasingly individualistic. While the vast majority of quality of life studies have focused on Westerners, this study contributes findings from the unique cultural context of China. Moreover, concentration on this particular period in Chinese history offers insight into the relationship between SWB and rapid socioeconomic and political change.
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Notes
In addition, when income and support for collectivism were excluded from the models, which yielded a much larger analytic sample of size n = 2,071, none of the substantive findings for the other variables in the models differed.
We were unable to include an educational attainment measure due to the absence of a consistent and meaningful measure across waves of the WVS. The only measure of education that was included in all waves of the WVS in China was the age at completion of education, which is not particularly meaningful. Moreover, when this variable, which has considerable missingness, was included in the models presented in this paper, it did not alter any of the substantive conclusions presented.
When these three items are included in the models separately, the results do not differ substantively from those reported in this paper.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Martin Ruef and Gilbert Rozman for providing invaluable comments on early drafts of this paper. We are also grateful for the constructive suggestions from the SIR editor and anonymous reviewers. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors.
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Steele, L.G., Lynch, S.M. The Pursuit of Happiness in China: Individualism, Collectivism, and Subjective Well-Being During China’s Economic and Social Transformation. Soc Indic Res 114, 441–451 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-012-0154-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-012-0154-1