Role of social, civic, and governance aspects in life satisfaction and psychological distress: Insights from Taiwan

Although decades of economic growth in many parts of the world have created materially abundant societies, their ability to meet the subjective well-being needs and decrease the psychological distress of people is far from reality. Given that a greater emphasis is being placed on the social, environmental, and governmental factors that promote well-being and decrease distress, and considering that Taiwan is not an exception in this regard, this research project made use of the data from the national survey to investigate the role of social, civic, and governmental aspects in the life satisfaction and psychological distress of people in Taiwan. In addition to suggesting significant correlations, regression analyses indicated that the predictor variables significantly contributed to life satisfaction and psychological distress. Confidence in the government was the strongest predictor of life satisfaction, whereas the lack of healthy relationships was the strongest contributor to distress. These significant results suggest the importance of the role of both social dimensions and democratic government in mitigating distress and enhancing the life satisfaction of its citizens.