Mind Over Matter: Mindfulness, Income, Resilience, and Life Quality of Vocational High School Students in China

Shannon Cheung, Xiaoxia Xie and Chien-chung Huang
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Shannon Cheung: School of Social Work, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA
Xiaoxia Xie: Research Institute of Social Development, Southwestern University of Finance & Economics, Chengdu 611300, China
Chien-chung Huang: School of Social Work, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 16, 1-13

Abstract: Many social welfare programs focus on the provision of cash assistance and cash transfers to improve the quality of life (QoL) of those living in low-income households. While there is literature to support a positive relationship between income and QoL, studies have shown that QoL is impacted by non-income-related factors. This study examined the effects of income and mindfulness on QoL through a mediator, resilience, and attempts to answer the question of how important income is to QoL, relative to a non-income-based determinant, mindfulness. Using a sample of 905 emerging adults from the senior class of a secondary vocational high school based in an impoverished county of China, we studied two key determinants of QoL, income and mindfulness, as well as respective pathways, during a particularly critical stage of life. The results indicated that mindfulness had strong direct and indirect effects on QoL via resilience, while income had only limited indirect effects on QoL via resilience. Policy implications were discussed.

Keywords: income; mindfulness; resilience; quality of life; vocational education; high school students; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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