Reciprocal effects between life satisfaction and help expectancy in China

Abstract Reciprocal effects between life satisfaction and help expectancy or predicted help in the future are plausible but obscure and debatable theoretically and empirically. The plausibility rests on exchange theory regarding satisfaction and help as exchangeable favors. However, help expectancy, largely empirically uncharted, can signify social demand and dependency impeding satisfaction. This debate urges the present study to use a panel survey of 12,000 residents in China from 2015 to 2018 to estimate the reciprocal effects simultaneously. Results show statistically significant reciprocal contributions between life satisfaction and help expectancy, controlling for their prior states in the resident and his or her spouse. Notably, the concurrent contribution of help expectancy to life satisfaction was slight and only half of the reverse contribution. Meanwhile, lagged reciprocal effects between life satisfaction and help expectancy were nonsignificant. Results thus imply that promoting help expectancy would only be slightly effective in advancing life satisfaction.