This study explored the relationship between social support and subjective well-being of the rural Chinese older adults and investigated whether self-worth could mediate this association. A total number of 356 older adults from rural areas of China were investigated using three scales. The results were as follows: there were significant correlations between social support, self-worth, and subjective well-being (where P < 0.01 in all of them). Bootstrapping mediation analyses indicated that self-worth partly mediated the association between social support and subjective well-being. Accordingly, social support and self-worth are important targets for improving the subjective well-being level of the rural older adults.
Keywords: Social support; rural older adults; self-worth; subjective well-being.