Social Networks and Wellbeing in China

• In Event: 598 - Section on Asia and Asian America Roundtable Session.
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 02. Health and Well-Being in Asia

Abstract

That social networks influences individual outcomes is non-surprising, but the actual mechanisms have been studied extensively for decades. Using cross-sectional data from 3,001 respondents from the Chinese General Social Survey (2008), I studied how social networks mediate the relation between individual/family characteristics and wellbeing. Inspired by social resources theory specific hypotheses on the differential mediating role of various network characters was formulated. Improving on previous studies, a number of social networks measures (network size and tie strength) were used to capture access to social networks and explored its mediating role on the effect of background variables on individual wellbeing. Results showed that social networks partially mediated the relation between initial ascribed qualities and achieved outcomes. Interestingly, I found that the highest available resources concentrated within one social relation are a stronger predictor of subjective wellbeing than the total available resources, showing that distinct aspects of social resources have different effects on different individual outcomes suggests that SRT is not universal, but contingent on the specific resources available.

Authors

• Shuanglong Li, Kyushu University

• David Macro, Utrecht University