Social Quality and Residents’ Subjective Well-Being in China—An Empirical Analysis Based on CSS2021 Data

Abstract

Happiness is the eternal pursuit of human beings, and subjective well-being is an essential indicator for evaluating happiness. Research on subjective well-being mainly focuses on material, economic, and psychological factors, and there is insufficient research on the impact of social factors on subjective well-being. Focusing on the influence of social factors on subjective well-being can help us better understand the “Easterlin Paradox”. Based on the theoretical model of social quality, this paper analyzes the influence of the current Chinese social quality on Chinese people’s subjective well-being using the data from the China Social Survey 2021 (CSS2021). It is found that the higher the social quality, the stronger the people’s subjective well-being, and this conclusion is stable for different groups. By dimension, socio-economic security, social cohesion, and social inclusion significantly affect people’s subjective well-being, but social empowerment does not significantly affect subjective well-being. This paper provides new evidence to explore the impact of social quality on people’s well-being.