Department of Sociology, University of North Texas, Denton.
Department of Sociology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2014 Nov;69(6):979-89. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbu050. Epub 2014 Jun 6.
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of environment on the subjective well-being (SWB) of older Chinese villagers after controlling for personal and social characteristics.
Data collected from the Chinese Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey Pilot Study were used to examine the relationship between (a) SWB (i.e., happiness and depressive symptoms) of Chinese rural elderly and (b) environmental characteristics, controlling for personal and social characteristics. A total of 850 older villagers from 2 Chinese provinces were analyzed using multilevel regression models.
Five of the 8 environmental variables had significant effects on SWB: A natural disaster in the past 5 years, rainy days, and use of coal in the home were associated with lower SWB, whereas village wealth and sewer system were associated with higher SWB. Personal and social characteristics of importance included health, age, place of birth, perception that future help is available if needed, and providing help to others.
The proposition that the environment of older Chinese villagers is associated with their SWB was supported after accounting for personal and social characteristics. SWB may be improved by improving environments as well as by changes to personal and social conditions.
本研究旨在控制个人和社会特征后，考察环境对中国农村老年村民主观幸福感（SWB）的影响。
使用中国健康与退休纵向研究试点数据，采用多层次回归模型，分析了 850 名来自中国 2 个省份的农村老年人的（a）SWB（即幸福感和抑郁症状）与（b）环境特征之间的关系。
在 8 个环境变量中，有 5 个对 SWB 有显著影响：过去 5 年内发生自然灾害、雨天、家中使用煤炭与较低的 SWB 有关，而村庄财富和下水道系统与较高的 SWB 有关。重要的个人和社会特征包括健康状况、年龄、出生地、对未来如有需要可获得帮助的看法以及向他人提供帮助。
在考虑了个人和社会特征后，支持了中国农村老年村民的环境与其 SWB 相关的观点。改善环境以及个人和社会条件的改变都可能提高幸福感。
