“Helping others as the key to achieving happiness”: The effect of social capital and public service motivation on subjective well-being among Chinese young adults

Young adults are often taught to take part in public service activities inside and outside of school. By introducing the concept of public service motivation (PSM), this study attempts to explore the relative importance of young adults’ social capital and self-efficacy in promoting their subjective wellbeing (SWB). Surveying a large group of Chinese young adults from higher education institutions in four major cities in China, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen ( N = 710), this study reveals that SWB has a stronger association to social capital and self-efficacy than PSM. With the use of structural equation modeling, it is further found that social capital fosters SWB via the increase of self-efficacy instead of PSM. We also find that in addition to economic and monetary incentives, young adults in China can develop PSM through the construction of social capital, self-efficacy, and SWB. The implications for PSM studies, i.e. the social desirability issue and its dark side regarding mental health and life satisfaction will be discussed in a Chinese setting.