TY - JOUR

T1 - Living space and psychological well-being in urban China

T2 - differentiated relationships across socio-economic gradients

AU - Hu, Yang

AU - Coulter, Rory

N1 - The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Environment and Planning A, 49 (4), 2017, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2017 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the Environment and Planning A page: http://journals.sagepub.com/home/epn on SAGE Journals Online: http://journals.sagepub.com/

PY - 2017/4/1

Y1 - 2017/4/1

N2 - Western research has shown that a shortage of living space is associated with poor psychological well-being. By contrast, norms and practices of extended family co-residence, collectivist social organization, and a bureaucratic quota-based housing allocation system were thought to limit the adverse psychological effects of cramped dwelling conditions in pre-reform China. As these buffers may be weakening with the dramatic housing reforms, socio-economic, and cultural changes taking place in post-reform urban China, we use data from the 2010 China Family Panel Studies (N = 13,367) to re-examine the relationship between living space and psychological well-being in contemporary Chinese cities. In particular, we examine the ways in which this relationship is moderated by family wealth and community poverty in order to explore how subjective experiences of dwelling space are shaped by one’s relative socio-economic position. The results show that cramped living conditions are significantly associated with poor psychological well-being in post-reform urban China. Importantly, the psychological implications of cramped dwellings may vary with family and particularly community socio-economic status as this association tends to be stronger among more affluent families and communities than among those that are more impoverished. Taken together the findings indicate that uneven socio- economic development, segmented cultural change, and drastic housing reforms within China’s cities may be interacting to configure people’s housing experiences and health outcomes.

AB - Western research has shown that a shortage of living space is associated with poor psychological well-being. By contrast, norms and practices of extended family co-residence, collectivist social organization, and a bureaucratic quota-based housing allocation system were thought to limit the adverse psychological effects of cramped dwelling conditions in pre-reform China. As these buffers may be weakening with the dramatic housing reforms, socio-economic, and cultural changes taking place in post-reform urban China, we use data from the 2010 China Family Panel Studies (N = 13,367) to re-examine the relationship between living space and psychological well-being in contemporary Chinese cities. In particular, we examine the ways in which this relationship is moderated by family wealth and community poverty in order to explore how subjective experiences of dwelling space are shaped by one’s relative socio-economic position. The results show that cramped living conditions are significantly associated with poor psychological well-being in post-reform urban China. Importantly, the psychological implications of cramped dwellings may vary with family and particularly community socio-economic status as this association tends to be stronger among more affluent families and communities than among those that are more impoverished. Taken together the findings indicate that uneven socio- economic development, segmented cultural change, and drastic housing reforms within China’s cities may be interacting to configure people’s housing experiences and health outcomes.

KW - China

KW - Living Space

KW - Psychological Well-being

KW - Family Wealth

KW - Community Poverty

U2 - 10.1177/0308518X16680213

DO - 10.1177/0308518X16680213

M3 - Journal article

VL - 49

SP - 911

EP - 929

JO - Environment and Planning A

JF - Environment and Planning A

SN - 0308-518X

IS - 4

ER -