Life satisfaction and its correlates among college students in China: a test of social reference theory

To study life satisfaction and to test the role of social reference in determining the degree of life satisfaction, we examined a large sample of undergraduate students in China for the correlates of campus life satisfaction.

A questionnaire survey was administered at a university and the final sample consisted of 439 respondents aged between 17 and 24 years, from all over the country, and studying different subjects.

It was found that freshman students tended to score higher on their life satisfaction than students in other grades and the college students' life satisfaction was positively related to female gender, self-esteem, social support, and the liberal attitudes on female gender roles, but negatively correlated with depression and suicidal ideation.

Contrary to common beliefs, students from an urban area or from better-off families were not necessarily more satisfied with current life than those students coming from the countryside or low income families. The findings were accounted for by the social reference theory and in this case college students' campus life satisfaction is basically affected by their pre-college life quality as a reference.