Coming of Age in Times of Change

2013 ◽  
Vol 646 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei-Jun Jean Yeung ◽  
Shu Hu
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Modern China ◽  
Birth Cohorts ◽  
Life Trajectories ◽  
Chinese Young Adults ◽  
Chinese General Social Survey ◽  
The Great Leap Forward

This article aims to (1) describe trends for Chinese young adults’ pathways into adulthood for birth cohorts that have experienced distinct historical events over the past half century and (2) examine factors that shape young adults’ transitioning behavior. We draw data from the 2005 to 2008 Chinese General Social Survey. In contrast to the increasingly protracted trend seen in many Western societies, the more recent Chinese cohorts transitioned to marriage and parenthood sooner than those who grew up during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. The economic and education reforms since the late 1970s have greatly increased urban-rural disparity in youths’ life trajectories despite their generally positive impact on young adults’ educational attainment and economic well-being. While near-universal marriage and childbearing within marriage prevail and son preference remains strong in modern China, evidence suggests that today’s young Chinese are exploring new pathways to adulthood, including cohabitation and premarital sex.

scholarly journals How Does New-Type Urbanization Affect the Subjective Well-Being of Urban and Rural Residents? Evidence from 28 Provinces of China

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (23) ◽  
pp. 13098
Author(s):  
Chu Li ◽  
Jinming Yan ◽  
Ze Xu
Keyword(s):  
Positive Impact ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Probit Model ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Household Registration ◽  
Registration System ◽  
New Type ◽  
The Government ◽  
Chinese General Social Survey

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the National New-type Urbanization Plan (2014–2020) put forward the novel principle of “people-oriented” policy. Has the Chinese government’s plan achieved the expected results? To answer this question, the present study evaluates the impacts of New-type Urbanization on the subjective well-being (SWB) of residents. Based on the IV Ordered Probit Model and the data of Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS), we determined that (1) living in cities has a positive impact on SWB, and this impact is significant at a statistical level of 1%; (2) urban household registration (hukou) has no significant impact on SWB; and (3) “Gender”, “Income”, “Job”, “Politics”, “Education”, “Marriage”, and “Health” have significant effects on SWB. To improve residents’ SWB, the government should enhance the attractiveness of the city and significantly reform the household registration system.

Partners’ Educational Pairings and Subjective Well-Being in China: An Analysis Using the Diagonal Mobility Model

2021 ◽  
pp. 0192513X2110380
Author(s):  
Xiaohang Zhao ◽  
Skylar Biyang Sun
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Sex Role ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Mobility Model ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Psychological Benefits ◽  
Educational Homogamy ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Chinese General Social Survey

Using pooled data from the Chinese General Social Survey in 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2015, this study investigated the relationship between partners’ educational pairings and subjective well-being among Chinese. Diagonal mobility models were employed to avoid conflating the effect of each partner’s education and the effect of the difference in education between partners. The findings reveal that regarding the well-being consequences of partners’ educational pairings, the hypothesis of satisfaction with marrying up outweighs the hypothesis of educational homogamy advantages and the hypothesis of sex roles. Specifically, for both women and men, persons marrying up in education are more likely to feel happy than their educationally homogamous counterparts. Moreover, educational hypergamy confers more psychological benefits to women in high-income communities than those in low-income communities. In addition, the earnings difference between partners plays a part in men’s SWB. Husbands who earn less than their wives are more likely to be unhappy than those whose earnings are 1–1.5 times those of their wives, suggesting that sex-role norms are at work. Our study contributes to a deeper understanding of the well-being consequences of educational heterogamy.

Mediating Role of Interpersonal Interactions Between Chinese Farmers' Social Networks and their Subjective Well-Being

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 721-732 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianjun Zhang ◽  
Yang Xu ◽  
Yu Hou
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Psychological Needs ◽  
Mediating Effect ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Interpersonal Interactions ◽  
The Impact

As more than half the population of China lives in rural areas, farmers' subjective well-being is important to the maintenance of socialism in the countryside and the Chinese people's target of comprehensively building a prosperous society. Using data collected in the 2012 Chinese General Social Survey, we built a regression model to examine the impact of farmers' social networks on their subjective well-being, and the mediating effect of their interpersonal interactions on this relationship. Results showed that farmers' social networks had a positive impact on their overall subjective well-being, which was, in turn, mediated by their interpersonal interactions. Farmers with well-developed social networks tended to have effective interpersonal interactions that satisfied their social psychological needs and enhanced their subjective well-being. Our findings provide a valuable reference for enhancing the subjective well-being of farmers in China.

scholarly journals Economic Expectations of Young Adults

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 237802311879595 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Bandelj ◽  
Yader R. Lanuza
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Moral Worth ◽  
Socioeconomic Background ◽  
Economic Expectations ◽  
Economic Future ◽  
The Impact

In uncertain economic times, who are those young adults that show positive expectations about their economic future? And who are those who worry? Based on previous stratification research and extending economic sociology insights into the realm of young people’s economic expectations, we focus on the impact of family class background and a sense of current meaningful community relations on young adults’ general and job-specific economic expectations. Analysis of Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) data reveals that a sense of community belonging has a robust and positive impact on economic optimism of young adults, but the role of family socioeconomic background is weaker. We conclude that imagining one’s economic future is less about realistic calculation determined by early structural conditions but more about identity work of young people who assert their moral worth in how they imagine their economic lives and manage uncertainty and well-being in ongoing social relations.

Generational Variation in Young Adults’ Attitudes toward Legal Abortion: Contextualizing the Role of Religion

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-296
Author(s):  
M. N. Barringer ◽  
J. E. Sumerau ◽  
David A. Gay
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Life Stage ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Sociodemographic Factors ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Legal Abortion ◽  
Birth Cohorts ◽  
Religious Preference ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Abortion Attitudes

Recent sociological research has addressed a wide range of attitudinal, behavioral, and sociodemographic factors that influence attitudes toward legal abortion. Young adulthood is an important life stage for the development of attitudes and behaviors that are likely to influence individuals over time. Several life course theorists in psychology, social psychology, and sociology hold views consistent with this idea. We use a cohort comparison to evaluate the extent to which attitudes among young adults vary by cohort/historical epoch. We examine the influence of religious preference and participation on support for legal abortion across three birth cohorts controlling for a range of sociodemographic variables. Using data from the General Social Survey, we compare abortion attitudes and religious predictors of these attitudes across three generational cohorts—Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials. Our findings indicate (1) differences between cohorts, (2) variation in the influence of religion on abortion attitudes among young adults socialized in different time periods, and (3) consistency and inconsistency in relation to sociodemographic effects across cohorts. These findings suggest that part of the continuity of abortion debates in U.S. society reflects changes whereby young adults became less supportive of legal abortion after the Baby Boomer cohort.

Tracking US Social Change Over a Half-Century: The General Social Survey at Fifty

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-134
Author(s):  
Peter V. Marsden ◽  
Tom W. Smith ◽  
Michael Hout
Keyword(s):  
Cross Sections ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Birth Cohorts ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Two Generations ◽  
Current Characteristics

In the five decades since its inception in 1971, the General Social Survey (GSS) project has prospectively recorded the current characteristics, backgrounds, behaviors, and attitudes of representative cross sections of American adults covering more than two generations and more than a century of birth cohorts. A foundational resource for contemporary social science, the data it produces and disseminates enable social scientists to develop broad and deep understandings into the changing fabric of US society, and aid legions of instructors and students in teaching and learning. It facilitates internationally comparative survey research and places the United States in the context of other societies through the International Social Survey Program, which it cofounded. This article first recounts the GSS's origins, design, and development. It then surveys contributions based on GSS data to studies of stratification and inequality, religion, sociopolitical trends, intergroup relations, social capital and social networks, health and well-being, culture, and methodology.

scholarly journals Does young adults’ life satisfaction promote tolerance towards immigrants? The role of political satisfaction and social trust

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liliia Korol ◽  
Pieter Bevelander
Keyword(s):  
Life Satisfaction ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Political System ◽  
Social Trust ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Attitudes Toward Immigrants ◽  
Positive Attitudes

AbstractMuch prior research relies on the idea that antipathy towards immigrants is primarily driven by natives’ perceptions of the threat that immigrants represent to their economic, cultural or national well-being. Yet little is known about whether subjective well-being affects attitudes toward immigrants. This study aimed to examine whether life satisfaction would foster tolerance towards immigrants over time via the indirect influence of political satisfaction and social trust. The sample comprised young native adults (N = 1352; M age = 22.72; SD = 3.1) in Sweden. The results revealed that young adults who were satisfied with important life domains were more likely to extend their satisfaction towards the political system, which consequently resulted in a generalised expectation of trustworthiness and a widening of their circles of trusted others. This then translates into more positive attitudes toward immigrants. The findings provide evidence that it is the causal relationship between political satisfaction and social trust (rather than social trust in itself) which promotes the positive impact of life satisfaction on tolerance towards immigrants. The study highlights that fostering political satisfaction and social trust may play an important role in shaping young people’s positive attitudes towards immigrants.

scholarly journals The Effects of Need Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction on Flourishing among Young Chinese Gamers: The Mediating Role of Internet Gaming Disorder

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (22) ◽  
pp. 4367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryant Pui Hung Hui ◽  
Anise M. S. Wu ◽  
Nicolson Y. F. Siu ◽  
Ming-Lun Chung ◽  
Ngai Pun
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Internet Gaming Disorder ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Psychological Needs ◽  
Need Satisfaction ◽  
Basic Psychological Needs ◽  
Game Playing ◽  
Gaming Disorder ◽  
Internet Gaming ◽  
Chinese Young Adults

Given the increasing popularity of online game playing, the negative impacts of game addiction on both adolescents and adults attracted our attention. Previous studies based on the self-determination theory have examined the effects of the three basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness on problematic video game playing among Chinese young adults. Yet, as more evidence emerged pointing to the possible relation between need dissatisfaction and higher vulnerability for ill-being and psychopathology, the present study aimed to incorporate the impacts of both satisfaction and dissatisfaction for autonomy, competence, and relatedness in explaining Internet gaming disorder (IGD), a condition that may in turn impede eudaimonic well-being as indicated by flourishing. In a self-administered online survey with a valid sample of 1200 Chinese young adults aged 18–24 years (mean age = 19.48 years), the prevalence of probable IGD (for those who reported five or more symptoms in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) symptom list for IGD) was 7.5%. Our results showed that relatedness dissatisfaction positively predicted IGD symptoms after controlling for other need satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Also, flourishing was found to be negatively predicted by IGD. Finally, IGD was found to mediate the effect of relatedness dissatisfaction on flourishing. Our findings suggested a risk factor of relatedness dissatisfaction in predicting IGD, thereby significantly predicting flourishing.

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