Zhou Lei, Peng Yubo, Xia Qing
Zhejiang Shuren University, Hangzhou, China.
Zhejiang Academy of Commerce, Hangzhou, China.
Front Psychol. 2025 Jul 11;16:1471488. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1471488. eCollection 2025.
Happiness is one of the important manifestations of the psychological health of rural residents. Based on the data of the 2020 China Rural Revitalization Comprehensive Survey (CRRS), this paper constructs a theoretical analysis framework of "material compensation-emotional immersion" and adopts OLS model and instrumental variables method to study the influence of digital skills on the happiness of rural residents and the underlying mechanism. The regression results of the OLS model show that there is an "inverted U" curve relationship between digital skills and rural residents' happiness, which verifies the happiness effect of digital skills mastery, and also reveals that as the level of digital skills increases, it is easy to lead to distorted upward comparisons, fall into digital traps and form digital addiction, resulting in lower happiness. The mechanism analysis shows that the "inverted U" effect of digital skills on the happiness of rural residents is mainly transmitted through the material compensation effect, i.e., the objective income and subjective income satisfaction first rise and then fall. Although digital skills gradually build up a positive affective immersion effect, i.e., an increase in trust, it is not sufficient to offset the negative effect of the material compensation effect. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the happiness effect of digital skills is present in both low- and high-income farmer groups, reflecting the universality of the digital dividend. However, farmers at high income levels are more negatively affected, showing an "inverted U" type non-linear relationship, while farmers at low-income levels are only positively affected, showing a positive linear relationship. In addition, digital skills can reduce the welfare gap between rural residents with different levels of education. Accordingly, this paper provides empirical evidence on how to bridge the digital divide in the process of digital village construction in order to better improve the happiness of rural residents.
幸福是农村居民心理健康的重要表现之一。基于2020年中国乡村振兴综合调查（CRRS）的数据，本文构建了“物质补偿—情感沉浸”的理论分析框架，并采用OLS模型和工具变量法研究数字技能对农村居民幸福感的影响及其潜在机制。OLS模型的回归结果表明，数字技能与农村居民幸福感之间存在“倒U”曲线关系，这验证了数字技能掌握的幸福效应，同时也揭示出随着数字技能水平的提高，容易引发扭曲的向上比较，陷入数字陷阱并形成数字成瘾，从而导致幸福感降低。机制分析表明，数字技能对农村居民幸福感的“倒U”效应主要通过物质补偿效应传导，即客观收入和主观收入满意度先上升后下降。虽然数字技能逐渐形成积极的情感沉浸效应，即信任增加，但不足以抵消物质补偿效应的负面影响。异质性分析表明，数字技能的幸福效应在低收入和高收入农民群体中均存在，体现了数字红利的普遍性。然而，高收入水平的农民受到的负面影响更大，呈现“倒U”型非线性关系，而低收入水平的农民仅受到积极影响，呈现正线性关系。此外，数字技能可以缩小不同教育水平农村居民之间的福利差距。据此，本文为数字乡村建设过程中如何弥合数字鸿沟以更好地提升农村居民幸福感提供了实证依据。
