SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1651896
This article is part of the Research TopicCulture and Emotion in Educational Dynamics - Volume IVView all 12 articles
The Impact of Education on Subjective Well-being: A Meta Analysis Based on 59 Empirical Studies
Provisionally accepted
- 1Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China
- 2Tianjin University, Tianjin, China
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Subjective well-being (SWB) has emerged as a prominent research focus, especially in the context of specific dimensions of education (educational level, higher education participation, and lifelong learning engagement). This study aimed to assess whether education (educational level, higher education participation, lifelong learning engagement) influences SWB, and to explore whether moderators such as rural-urban residence and publication year alter this relationship. Following the PRISMA guidelines, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis. After applying rigorous eligibility criteria (e.g., empirical studies reporting relationships between education and SWB, specific published years from 2012 to 2023 and languages including English and Chinese), this study screened 59 empirical studies and extracted 185 effect sizes that could be used in the meta-analysis. First, we examined the relationship between education and SWB and further analyzed the moderators to explore the effects of rural–urban factors and publication year. The results showed that: (1) Educational level and higher education participation significantly influenced SWB, while lifelong learning engagement showed a weaker but significant positive association, partially supporting our initial hypothesis. (2) The relationship between education and SWB was moderated by rural–urban factors. (3) Publication year within the studied time also exerted a significant moderating effect. Therefore, this study clarified that education should be emphasized continuously, and education equity ought to be improved further so that both rural and urban residents gain high levels of SWB in the future. These results of the paper will provide insights into how SWB interacts with education and offer useful suggestions of improving SWB from an educational perspective.
Keywords: Educational Level, higher education participation, lifelong learning engagement, Subjective well-being, Meta-analysis, moderating factors 1
Received: 22 Jun 2025; Accepted: 05 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Dong, Xing, Song and Hu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xuemin Dong, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China
Haixin Song, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China
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