Table 1.
Summary statistics of key variables
| Variable | Definition | 2010
|
2012
|
2014
|
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean | SD | Mean | SD | Mean | SD | ||
| Life dissatisfaction | life dissatisfaction, ranging from 1 to 5, the lower the better answer to “To what extent did you feel hard to cheer up in | 2.500 | 1.049 | 2.672 | 1.052 | 2.171 | 0.994 |
| Hedonic unhappiness | the past month?”, ranging from 0 (never) to 4 (almost every day), the lower the better | 0.686 | 0.918 | -- | -- | 0.757 | 0.939 |
| CES-D scores | the total score of the CES-D, 0–24, the lower the better | 2.841 | 3.704 | -- | -- | 2.974 | 3.813 |
| Depressive symptoms | indicator for depressive symptoms (= 1 if CES-D scores ≥ 4) | 0.312 | 0.463 | -- | -- | 0.317 | 0.465 |
| API | air pollution index | 64.084 | 33.491 | 57.182 | 20.825 | 89.012 | 35.261 |
| Per capita income | log form of annual household per capita income (yuan) | 8.756 | 1.053 | 8.873 | 1.281 | 9.062 | 1.220 |
| Relative income | self-rated relative income status, ranging from 1 to 5, the higher the better | 2.212 | 0.967 | 2.243 | 0.967 | 2.522 | 0.970 |
| Age | age (÷10) | 4.655 | 1.502 | 4.781 | 1.512 | 4.874 | 1.542 |
| Male | indicator for males | 0.497 | 0.500 | 0.497 | 0.500 | 0.493 | 0.500 |
| Married | indicator for married status | 0.848 | 0.359 | 0.858 | 0.349 | 0.848 | 0.359 |
| Education | years of education | 6.611 | 4.848 | 7.255 | 4.660 | 7.495 | 4.673 |
| Unemployed | indicator for unemployment status | 0.069 | 0.254 | 0.011 | 0.105 | 0.008 | 0.090 |
| Party | indicator for party membership | 0.080 | 0.272 | 0.088 | 0.283 | 0.086 | 0.281 |
| Chronic disease | indicator for suffering from chronic diseases | 0.142 | 0.349 | 0.135 | 0.342 | 0.182 | 0.386 |
Source: China Family Panel Studies 2010, 2012 and 2014.
Note: API = air pollution index; CES-D = Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale; SD = Standard deviation; Dashes indicate no data for the 2012 wave of survey.