Influence of Social Work on Life Satisfaction among Rural Residents: Mediated by Social Support and Moderated by the Sense of Self-Governance

Abstract

Social work as a professionalized set of social services serves communities by promoting communication and interaction between residents. Furthermore, it connects residents to various resources, enhances their sense of belonging to their communities, and addresses their emotional needs. Social work in rural China is expected to enhance rural residents’ life satisfaction, although its performance can be difficult to quantify. This study used data from a social work performance survey of 558 rural residents in Jiangning District, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China to determine the links between social work performance, social support, and residents’ life satisfaction and test the mediating effect of social support and the moderating effect of residents’ sense of self-governance in connecting social work performance and life satisfaction. The data were organized, descriptive and correlation analyses were conducted using the software SPSS22.0, and the mediating and moderating effects were tested using SPSS Process macro v3.4.1. Results indicate that for rural residents in China, effective social work significantly improved life satisfaction through social support, whose effect varied depending on the level of sense of self-governance. The findings offer practical insights into upgrading rural residents’ life satisfaction through the improvement of social services in rural areas.

Keywords:

• Social work
• rural residents
• life satisfaction
• social support
• sense of self-governance

Acknowledgments

We express our gratitude to the survey team for collecting the data and the local rural community workers, social workers, and rural residents for participating in our research.

Ethical Approval

The Ethics Review Committee, School of Sociology and Population Studies, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications has approved the protocol of the study (Ethical Code: NJUPT-DOS-IRB–001029-22010). An informed consent was obtained from all of the participants at the beginning.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data Availability Statement

The data was collected in the Social Workers Embedded in Rural Governance Survey (2023) by the Master of Social Work Education Center at the School of Sociology and Population Studies, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, the availability of which is subject to a confidentiality agreement.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Social Science Fund of China under Grant [number 23CRK007].

Notes on contributors

Xiaofeng Liu

Xiaofeng Liu is an Associate Professor with research interests in the modernization of local governance and behaviors of grass-roots cadres.

Jingjing Zhou

Jingjing Zhou is an Associate Professor with research interests in rural social work and social work practice.

Hui Shi

Hui Shi is a Master’s candidate specializing in rural sociology and rural social work.

Huahua Zhang

Huahua Zhang is a Master’s candidate specializing in rural sociology and rural social work.

Suqi Zuo

Suqi Zuo is a research assistant with research interests in rural social work.