Family socioeconomic status and provincial-level economic, educational, and health-related factors as predictors of present- and future-oriented subjective wellbeing in junior high school students in China

Introduction Previous studies have examined family socioeconomic status (SES) and regional-level factors that predict adolescents' present subjective wellbeing (SWB). However, as adolescents' SWB tends to be future-oriented, this study examined the relationships between family SES and provincial-level economic, educational, and health-related factors and adolescents' present- and future-oriented SWB. Methods The sample includes 17,341 12- to 17-year-old adolescents (M-age = 13.86; SDage = 0.79; 9056 girls and 8285 boys) from 31 different provinces of China. Multilevel modeling was used to analyze the data at two levels. Results The findings showed that family SES (Level-1) was positively correlated with present life satisfaction (LS-P), present positive affect (PPA), hopeful future expectations (HFE), and positive affect toward future life (FPA), but negatively correlated with present negative affect (PNA) and negative affect toward future life (FNA). Provincial-level (Level-2) years of education per capita, average life expectancy, and human development index (HDI) were positively associated with LS-P, PPA, FPA, and HFE, and negatively associated with PNA; only average life expectancy was negatively associated with FNA. There was no association between gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and SWB. Simple slope analyses demonstrated that, in provinces with relatively less or short years of education per capita, GDP per capita, average life expectancy, or HDI, the correlations between family SES and present- and future-oriented negative affect were stronger. Conclusions The present- and future-oriented SWB of adolescents from families with low SES in underdeveloped areas was relatively poor. More psychologically focused education activities are needed for these adolescents.