Research on the Impact of Diverse Trust Among Rural Elderly on their Health Status

By referring to Welter’s classification method of “three-point construction” of trust, this paper divides rural older adult trust into three categories: institutional trust, social trust, and emotional trust, discusses the influence of different types of trust on the health status of rural older adults, and reveals the mediating role of active use behavior in the process of trust affecting the health status of rural older adults. The hierarchical regression estimation method and Bootstrap method were used to test the direct effect of trust on the health status of rural older adults and the mediating effect of active use behavior in the process of trust on the health status of rural older adults. On this basis, the moderating effects of institutional endowment resources, social mutual endowment resources, and family endowment resources supply the environment for the process of trust affecting the health status of rural older adults, are analyzed. The empirical results show that: (1) Institutional trust, social trust, and emotional trust have significant positive effects on the health status of rural older adults; (2) The active use behavior of rural older adults plays a mediating role in the process of trust affecting their health status, but the effect degree is not high on the whole; (3) The moderating effects of institutional resources, social capital and family resources on the influence of trust on the active use behavior of rural older adults are not consistent. Accordingly, the corresponding policy enlightenment is drawn.