{"title":"How and Why Marriage is Related to Subjective Well-Being? Evidence from Chinese Society","authors":"Yuxin Hu, Runze Zhang, Shuming Zhao, Jialei Zhang","doi":"10.1177/0192513x241263785","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Although research on the relationship between marriage and subjective well-being (SWB) has been a principal focus in social sciences, research that takes cultural contextual effects into account is scant. Drawing on data from the five-wave 2010–2018 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) panel survey, we explore how marital status (married or not) affects SWB among 15,507 Chinese adults. Utilizing the two-way fixed-effects (FE) model, we show that under the influence of Confucianism, getting married leads to higher SWB levels in Chinese people. The result is robust to alternative SWB measures. Our heterogeneous analyses indicate that the impact of marriage varies across gender, cultural context, income, and couples’ differences in the level of education. In particular, how Confucianism impacts the relationship between marriage and SWB differs by gender. Structural equation modeling ( N = 13,196) predicts that individual human capital and social capital are mediators in marriage–SWB relationships.","PeriodicalId":48283,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Family Issues","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Family Issues","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513x241263785","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"FAMILY STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Although research on the relationship between marriage and subjective well-being (SWB) has been a principal focus in social sciences, research that takes cultural contextual effects into account is scant. Drawing on data from the five-wave 2010–2018 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) panel survey, we explore how marital status (married or not) affects SWB among 15,507 Chinese adults. Utilizing the two-way fixed-effects (FE) model, we show that under the influence of Confucianism, getting married leads to higher SWB levels in Chinese people. The result is robust to alternative SWB measures. Our heterogeneous analyses indicate that the impact of marriage varies across gender, cultural context, income, and couples’ differences in the level of education. In particular, how Confucianism impacts the relationship between marriage and SWB differs by gender. Structural equation modeling ( N = 13,196) predicts that individual human capital and social capital are mediators in marriage–SWB relationships.
期刊介绍:
The journal is devoted to contemporary social issues and social problems related to marriage and family life and to theoretical and professional issues of current interest to those who work with and study families.