Mediation effects of subjective well-being and subjective social status on the relationship between social trust and emotional health of older adults
Table 1 presents the descriptive statistics of all the variables used in the analysis. In general, the average level of emotional health of elderly respondents was relatively high, at 4.22. Among the three types of social trust, trust in family members was the highest (4.82), followed by trust in friends (4.35), and the lowest was trust in neighbours (3.95). The average subjective well-being of elderly respondents was 3.77. The subjective social status of the elderly was relatively low, with an average of 4.24 (<5). In terms of the respondents’ demographic characteristics, the average age of the respondents was 65.23, and most of the elderly had partners (92.08%). In terms of family composition, the average number of family members living together was 5.05. In terms of working status, 94.24% of the elderly respondents had a job (mostly working in agriculture). The average annual income of the respondents was 1,1889.3 yuan. The proportions of male respondents and female respondents were 61.13% and 38.87%, respectively. The average education level of the respondents was 2.04, which is low. The respondents’ average self-rated health was 2.79.
Table 2 shows the regression results on the relationship of social trust and emotional health and the mediation effect of subjective well-being. The dependent variable in Models 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, and 9 was emotional health, and the dependent variable in Models 2, 5, and 8 was subjective well-being. Model 1 shows that trust in family members is significantly and positively associated with respondents’ emotional health (coefficient=0.194, P<0.01). Compared with male respondents, female respondents had significantly poorer emotional health (coefficient=-0.215, P<0.01). The higher the level of education, the better was the reported emotional health of the respondents (coefficient=0.045, P<0.05). The worse the self-rated health of the respondents, the more likely they were to suffer from poor emotional health (coefficient=-0.298, P<0.01). Model 2 shows that trust in family members had a significant positive effect on the subjective well-being of the respondents (coefficient=0.177, P<0.01). Older, high-income, and well-educated respondents were more likely to report higher subjective well-being than younger, low-income, and less-educated respondents (coefficient=0.017, P<0.01; coefficient=0.015, P<0.05; coefficient=0.035, P<0.10; respectively). Respondents with poor health were more likely to have lower subjective well-being (coefficient=-0.191, P<0.01).
Models 4 and 5 show that trust in friends was significantly and positively associated with respondents’ emotional health and their subjective well-being (coefficient=0.097, P<0.01; coefficient=0.174, P<0.01; respectively). Models 7 and 8 show that trust in neighbours was significantly and positively associated with respondents’ emotional health and their subjective well-being (coefficient=0.088, P<0.01; coefficient=0.177, P<0.01; respectively). In terms of the influence of demographic factors, the regression results of Models 4 and 7 are similar to those of Model 1, and the regression results of Models 5 and 8 are similar to those of Model 2.
We followed Baron and Kenny [38] to test the presence of mediation effects of subjective well-being. Figure 2 shows the results of Model 3, indicating that adding the variable of subjective well-being to Model 1 weakened the effect of trust in family members on emotional health from coefficient=0.194 to coefficient=0.171. Figure 3 shows that after adding the subjective well-being variable into Model 4, the impact of trust in friends on the emotional health of the respondents decreased by 0.022. Figure 4 shows that after adding the subjective well-being variable into model 7, the impact of trust in neighbours on the emotional health of the respondents decreased by 0.023. These results suggest that subjective well-being can effectively reduce the impact of social trust (in family, friends, and neighbours) on the emotional health of rural older respondents.
Table 3 shows the regression results of the mediation effect of subjective social status on the relationship between social trust and emotional health. Model 10 shows that trust in family members had no significant effect on respondents’ subjective social status. Model 12 and 14 show that trust in friends and trust in neighbours had significant positive effects on respondents’ subjective social status (coefficient=0.120, P<0.05; coefficient=0.090, P<0.10; respectively).
We also followed Baron and Kenny [38] to test the presence of mediation effects of subjective social status. Figure 5 shows that after adding the subjective social status variable into Model 4, the impact of trust in friends on the emotional health of the respondents decreased by 0.004. Figure 6 shows that after adding the subjective social status variable into Model 7, the impact of trust in neighbours on the emotional health of the respondents decreased by 0.004. These results suggest that subjective social status can effectively reduce the impact of social trust (in friends and neighbours) on the emotional health of the elderly.
In terms of demographic factors, Model 10 shows that age, marital status, annual personal income, education level, and self-rated health had significant influence on the subjective social status of the respondents. Among them, the older the respondents, the higher was their subjective social status (coefficient=0.022, P<0.01). Compared with the single respondents, the married or cohabitating respondents had significantly higher subjective social status (coefficient=0.845, P<0.05). Respondents with a higher level of annual personal income and education also had a higher subjective social status (coefficient=0.034, P<0.05; coefficient=0.111, P<0.01), while respondents with poor health had relatively poor subjective social status (coefficient=-0.290, P<0.01). Models 15 and 17 show similar results.
Moderation effects of subjective well-being and subjective social status on the relationship between social trust and emotional health of older adults
Table 4 shows the regression results of the moderation effects of subjective well-being and subjective social status on the relationship between social trust and emotional health. The results from Model 16 show that both subjective well-being and subjective social status have significant effect on rural older respondents’ emotional health. Model 17 and Figure 7 show that the positive relationship between trust in family members and emotional health was weakened by subjective well-being, but subjective social status had no moderating effect on the relationship between social trust and emotional health.