Trust in Chinese Government and Quality of Life (QOL) of Sichuan Earthquake Survivors: Does Trust in Government Help to Promote QOL?

Researches on the factors on earthquake survivors' quality of life (QOL) focused on the demographic variables or the impact of mental illness on QOL. This study intends to study the relationships between trust in government and survivors' QOL. The data derived from a sample survey in five counties of Sichuan (Wenchuan, Qingchuan, Mianzhu, Lushan, Dujiangyan) in 2013 (N = 2000). Reliability tests are conducted for the brief version of World Health Organization quality of life questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF) and trust in government scale (TGS). Results show that the two scales have good reliability. Then we use confirmatory factor analysis to study the relationships between the items and domains of WHOQOL-BREF, as well the relationships between each domain and QOL. Finally, we employ structural equation modeling to explore the effect of ten items of TGS on the four domains of WHOQOL-BREF. Our main findings are: (1) survivors' QOL is relatively poor. (2) Survivors do not fully trust governmental work and each level of government. Trust increases as the levels of government grow. (3) Trust in governmental work has greater effects on the QOL compared with trust in each level of the government. (4) Trust in government has more significant effect on physical health and social relationship than on the psychological health and environment. The phenomenon of "disparity of Chinese trust in government" might be attributed to the political interpretation and mechanism of institutional design. The importance of effective governmental work to enhance the QOL of survivors is emphasized.