In recent years, subjective well-being (SWB) has gained much attention. SWB contributes to lifelong health (Ortega et al., 2010; Boehm et al., 2011). As a public health goal, SWB defined as the cognitive judgment and affective evaluation of one’s life (Cruwys et al., 2013; Forsman et al., 2013). The evaluations included emotional reactions to events and the cognitive judgments to satisfaction and fulfillment (Diener et al., 2002). From this perspective, SWB is a multidimensional concept that contains the experiences of pleasant emotion, lower level of negative moods and higher life satisfaction (Diener et al., 2002). The importance of SWB is well recognized by researchers and policy makers, the attributing elements of SWB in existing studies included optimal health, health relationships and quality of life (Helliwell and Wang, 2011; Klein, 2013; Churchill and Mishra, 2017). In addition, SWB has been frequently examined by extensive research, with evidence indicating that some demographic factors, such as age, gender, educational attainment, socioeconomic status, income, and marriage status significantly affect SWB; furthermore, an individual’s SWB is also strongly shaped by their cognition to the surrounding life environment, such as their social trust in others and perception of social equality (Young et al., 2004; Agampodi et al., 2015; Flores et al., 2018; Xiao et al., 2020).

The perception of social equality is a type of subjective psychological feeling regarding how people judge social equality issues; it is an evaluation related to the distribution of important social resources (Yu and Zhang, 2018). The evaluation usually is generated by comparing individuals’ reputation, socioeconomic status, and financial status with others and is closely related to individuals’ living environments, cultural background, and value proposition (Christopher, 2004). The perception of social equality could reflect an individual’s assessment of their current living environment and further influence their health and SWB (Hu and Shen, 2015). The perception of social equality is an indicator of health and has a significant impact on individuals’ SWB (Hu and Shen, 2015).

As a developing country, China’s political and social institutions in various domains are under development. This situation causes uneven distribution of benefits and influences perceptions of social equality (Li, 2020). For instance, in rural China, affected by the binary societal system, the social institutional systems in rural areas are more defective than urban areas (Wang, 2011; Zhang et al., 2013; Yang and Xue, 2016; Zheng, 2018). People live in urban areas could enjoy comprehensive social security, including but not limited endowment insurance, medical insurance, maternity insurance, employment injury insurance, unemployment insurance and other social assistance and social welfare programs (Zhang et al., 2013; Zheng, 2018). While those who live in rural areas could only enjoy the most basic social security which meets the minimum standards required by the state, the endowment insurance, medical insurance, and other social security programs of people living in rural areas are far less than their counterparts in urban areas (Chen and Wang, 2011; Zhang et al., 2013). In addition, in rural areas, the living environments are relatively tougher, the economic development is lagging, and people have lower income and savings, those are highly related to individuals’ social equality perception (Ma and Liu, 2010; Yu and Zhang, 2018). In this situation, people in rural areas are more likely to perceive inequality (Huhe et al., 2015). According the discussion above, we proposed the first hypothesis:

Social trust is a kind of belief that affords honesty, integrity, and reliability to others, at the same time, views others as sharing the same interests as you and not doing you harm (Newton, 2013; Joseph and Shirley, 2015). Broadly defined in the literature, social trust is a dimension of social capital, some researches focus on social trust as the most component of social capital and test its effect on SWB, the results show that as an element of social capital, social trust has positive effect on SWB (Helliwell and Wang, 2011; Ram, 2010; Klein, 2013; Zhang et al., 2021). Social trust is individuals’ subject cognation to firsthand experiences with people in social world: family members, friends, relatives, neighbors, colleagues, and other daily contacts, is an important factor in social communication, deemed a crucial synthetic force of society, and its importance to human beings and society cannot be overemphasized (Joseph and Shirley, 2015). These contacts can be divided into two forms: (a) family members, relatives and familiar friends, defined as special social trust; and (b) social organizations, defined as general social trust (Francis, 1996; Porta et al., 1997; Nannestad, 2008; Delhey et al., 2011). Special social trust refers to individuals’ positive expectations for others in their own group or with whom they interact intimately (Michael et al., 2005). While general social trust refers to individuals’ positive expectations for ones they are not familiar with, outside their social group or with whom they do not interact directly (Toshio et al., 1998; Uslaner and Conley, 2003). Weber (1951) proposed that the trust of Chinese people is built on kinship or purely personal relationship, for those who are outside their kinship or personal relationship, they tend to distrust them (Weber, 1951). And Francis (1996) further quoted and extended this assertion. While some Chinese researchers tested the viewpoints of Weber (1951) and Francis (1996) pragmatically, and found that in the special context of China, special social trust and general social trust are not a kind of binary opposition thinking (Zhai, 2014). At the same time, with the rapid changes of China’s social structure, the life styles, communication styles and social values of Chinese people have changed greatly, although there is still an emphasis on friendship and family in China, while the essence works for Chinese people’s trust is not the relationship itself, but the psychological and emotional intimacy between the two sides contained in the relationship (Li and Liang, 2002; Liu, 2016; Churchill and Mishra, 2017). Thus, for Chinese people’s trust, there is not only a particular trust based on the personal relationship, and also a general trust based on common ideas or beliefs which is characterized by helping to promote social trust in a broader sense and improving integration throughout society (Li and Liang, 2002; Wang and Wang, 2021). According to this situation, we proposed the second hypothesis:

Previous studies have concluded that education has a significant influence on social equality, social trust, and SWB (Jian et al., 2011; Newton, 2013; Ye and Liang, 2016; Zhang et al., 2019). Several studies have recognized the importance of education for the development of SWB (Neugebauer et al., 2014). For instance, researchers posited strong relationships among social trust and personal demographic variables, such as education, income, social status, life satisfaction, happiness, insecurity, and anxiety (Putnam, 2000). Other studies have asserted that people with higher education perceive lower levels of social inequality and exhibit higher levels of social trust, because receiving more education may enhance individuals’ ability to interpret information, handle risk, and understand the actions of others (Huang et al., 2011; Jennifer et al., 2016; Luca, 2017; Sven et al., 2017; Yang, 2019). Furthermore, scholars have argued that education could help people “cultivate a more benign view of the world,” which is important for enhancing social trust and social equality (Huang et al., 2011; Luca, 2017). A research based on the data from 2005 to 2015 Chinese General Social Surveys concluded that, with the higher the education, the higher the SWB, and there was a significant positive relationship between education level and SWB (Jin et al., 2020). Evidences showed that people with higher education level may have better financial status and social status, they may have more resources to share with others and thus help them to extend their social networks, and further promote their SWB (Churchill and Mishra, 2017; Zhang et al., 2019). However, most studies related to social equality, social trust, and SWB have used education as a control variable or analyzed the influence of education level to SWB directly. This study examined the relationship of perception of social equality and social trust with SWB and explored the effect of education level in these associations. According to previous studies about the relationship among perception of social equality, social trust and SWB, the following hypotheses were proposed:

In this study, we focused on the perception of social equality, social trust, and SWB in rural China. We explored the significant impact of the perception of social equality and social trust on SWB and differences in their influences on SWB by education level. The results indicate that the perception of social equality and general social trust had significant effects on individuals’ SWB, which conformed to the theoretical hypotheses. While special social trust had no significant effect on SWB, this is not conformed to our theoretical hypotheses. For fully testing the theoretical hypotheses, we examined the effect of special social trust on SWB without control general social trust, the results showed that special social trust affects SWB significantly without added general social trust. While when we added general social trust into the model, special social trust became non-significant. In the context of Confucianism, Chinese people emphasis on family values strongly, for Chinese people, the trust to their families and relatives is naturally (Zhai, 2014). However, social trust needs to store abundant “stock” to establish general social trust to improve and integrate society, and special social trust could form the “stock” of general trust (Wang and Wang, 2021). The trusted people constitute the “trust circle” of the trust subject, as the circle expands, the objects of special social trust increase and reinforce the role of special social trust as “stock” (Wang and Wang, 2021). Thus, when the “stock” of special social trust is enough to become general social trust, general social trust will act instead of the role of special social trust to influence individuals’ health outcomes, including SWB.

Previous studies identified the positive effects of the perception of social equality and social trust on individuals’ SWB (Paul and Samantha, 2009; Zhao, 2012; Yuan and Golpelwar, 2013; Bian et al., 2018), and some studies proposed the important role of education (Toots and Lauri, 2015; Sven et al., 2017; Yang, 2019). The findings of present study provide additional evidence that the perception of social equality and general social trust play important roles in individuals’ SWB. Education level had no moderating effect in the association between the perception of social equality and SWB. The perception of social equality had significant influence in both education groups. In the whole model, the perception of social equality had significant impact on SWB, and in the moderation model, the perception of social equality had significant impact on SWB in both groups. This illustrated that the perception of social equality is important for all people, whatever their education level. Education level also had no moderator effect in the association between special social trust and SWB, we had discussed above, for Chinese people, special social trust is a kind of naturally status, it has not been activated, thus, people could even not perceive the exist of special social trust to influence their SWB (Zhai, 2014).

In addition, education level played a moderator role in the association between general social trust and SWB, which conformed to the theoretical hypotheses. In lower education level group, general social trust had no significant influence on SWB, while in the higher education level group, general social trust affected SWB significantly. People with more education may have better financial status, social status, and social network, further enhancing their ability to communicate with society and extending their “trust circle,” thus, general social trust could play important role to their SWB. Whereas for people with lower education level, their lower financial status and social status may limit their communication with others, and further influence their SWB (Churchill and Mishra, 2017; Zhang et al., 2019).

The findings emphasize the importance of pursuing future policies that develop more socially equal communities. At the same time, for people with lower education level, government and communities should focus on helping them to extend their social capital, promote their general social trust to enhance their SWB and further promote the sustainability and development of rural Chinese areas.

This study has some limitations. First, the CGSS data were cross-sectional; generally, causal relationships cannot be tested through analysis of cross-sectional data. However, the study was based on previous research and related theories, thus, the results of the study are convincing. Second, the survey did not control all potential covariates including respondents’ social participation, political attitudes and the like which may confound the results of the model, and it is difficult to eliminate all confounding effects. Third, economic status and social class status were both self-reported in the survey, which may lead to information accuracy.

The present study explored the moderating role of education in the association between the perception of social equality and social trust and individuals’ SWB in rural China. The findings suggest that education has a moderating effect in the relationship between general social trust and SWB. The effect of the perception of social equality on SWB was significant in both education groups, whereas the effect of general social trust only existed in the higher-education group. Education had no moderating effect in the relationship between special social trust and SWB.

The datasets presented in this study can be found in online repositories. The names of the repository/repositories and accession number(s) can be found below: http://cgss.ruc.edu.cn/.

SG wrote and revised the manuscript and conducted the statistical analysis. JZ contributed to planning the study and revised the manuscript. Both authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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