Urban–Rural Differences in Subjective Well-Being of Older Adult Learners in China

Abstract

Population aging has brought great challenges to many regions throughout the world. Enhancing the sense of participation, access, and well-being of older adults is the goal of China’s aging development. This study, taking urban–rural difference as the entry point, examined the difference in subjective well-being between urban and rural older learners. A total of 2,007 older adults learners (n = 2007) aged over 50 years were recruited in Zhejiang, Anhui, and Shandong Provinces in China, including 773 rural older adults and 1,234 urban older adults. This study found that there was a significant positive correlation between senior learning and the subjective well-being of urban and rural older adult learners. Furthermore, there was a significant difference between the subjective well-being of urban and rural older adult learners’ and there was also an urban–rural difference between the effects of older adult learning on the subjective well-being. Based on the above findings, this study reveals the mechanism of the impact of older adult learning on subjective well-being of urban and rural older adults and gives relevant suggestions for improving the subjective well-being of urban and rural older learners.

Income loss and subsequent poor psychological well-being among the Chinese population during the early COVID-19 pandemic

“…We then conducted hierarchical multiple linear regression to examine whether income loss during the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with poor PWB. In step 1, the following predictor variables were introduced into the model for PWB: demographic and socioeconomic variables (age, gender, marital status, employment status, educational level, residential area and income level in the last year), health condition (chronic medical condition, self-rated health, participants themselves or their family members with confirmed COVID-19 infection) and health risk status (impact on diet caused by COVID-19, perceived risk of infection and actual risk level in the respondent’s place of residence), which were selected based on the knowledge of existing topic-related literature [ 40 – 44 ]. We also performed univariate linear regression analyses to evaluate potential confounders (all showed P < 0.05, in addition to residential area variables, see supplemental Table 1 ).…”

A study on the impact of health shocks on subjective wellbeing of middle-aged people and older adults—Evidence from China

“…Due to China's longstanding urban-rural divide, substantial disparities exist in the availability of health resources for middle-aged people and older adults residing in urban and rural areas ( 52 ). Consequently, when faced with health shocks, the trajectories of subjective wellbeing are theoretically divergent for these two groups ( 53 , 54 ). In terms of daily mobility, disability serves as a risk factor for numerous chronic ailments such as obesity, osteoporosis, and cardiovascular disease ( 55 – 57 ), and it is more likely to have a detrimental impact on the mental health of the aged ( 58 ).…”