Li Chao, Xia Yuxin, Zhang Yuhan
Business School, Shandong University, Weihai, China.
HSBC Business School, Peking University, Shenzhen, China.
Front Psychol. 2023 Jan 10;13:1022643. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1022643. eCollection 2022.
This paper uses a large-scale nationally representative dataset, the Chinese General Social Survey, to examine the relationship between subjective well-being and depressive disorders. Statistical results indicate that higher levels of subjective well-being help decrease perceived depression. Robustness checks are carried out using different types of explanatory and dependent variables, various regression models, penalized machine learning methods, instrumental variable approaches, and placebo tests, all of which lend further credence to the above findings. Based on it, heterogeneities in the relationship between subjective well-being and self-rated mental disorders are explored. In respect of variations in age cohorts, it is found that the absolute values of happiness's estimated coefficients are smaller in the 20-30 and 30-40 age groups, while that in the 40-50 age group increase substantially. In older cohorts, the estimates remain at higher levels while fluctuating to some degree. Furthermore, the significantly negative interaction between happiness and age proves that age amplifies subjective well-being's effect on perceived depressive disorders. With age increasing, the impact of happiness on reducing perceived depression tends to be stronger. Therefore, for older people, subjective well-being plays a more important role in suppressing self-rated depression. Heterogeneities of the relationship between happiness and perceived depressive disorders in subgroups with different demographic characteristics are also investigated. It is found that the negative correlation between subjective well-being and self-rated depression is stronger among those with higher educational levels, living in urban areas, being members of the Communist Party of China, having pensions, and owning more housing assets. However, gender, ethnic identity, religious belief, and marital status exert no significant moderating effects.
本文使用具有全国代表性的大规模数据集——中国综合社会调查，来研究主观幸福感与抑郁症之间的关系。统计结果表明，较高水平的主观幸福感有助于降低感知到的抑郁程度。使用不同类型的解释变量和因变量、各种回归模型、惩罚性机器学习方法、工具变量法和安慰剂检验进行稳健性检验，所有这些都进一步证实了上述发现。在此基础上，探讨了主观幸福感与自评精神障碍之间关系的异质性。就年龄组的差异而言，研究发现，在20 - 30岁和30 - 40岁年龄组中，幸福感估计系数的绝对值较小，而在40 - 50岁年龄组中则大幅增加。在年龄较大的组中，估计值保持在较高水平，同时有一定程度的波动。此外，幸福感与年龄之间显著的负向交互作用证明，年龄会放大主观幸福感对感知到的抑郁障碍的影响。随着年龄的增长，幸福感对降低感知到的抑郁的影响往往更强。因此，对于老年人来说，主观幸福感在抑制自评抑郁方面发挥着更重要的作用。还研究了具有不同人口特征的亚组中幸福感与感知到的抑郁障碍之间关系的异质性。研究发现，在受教育程度较高、居住在城市地区、是中国共产党党员、有养老金以及拥有更多住房资产的人群中，主观幸福感与自评抑郁之间的负相关更强。然而，性别、民族身份、宗教信仰和婚姻状况没有显著的调节作用。
