ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Personality and Social Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1654845
Social support networks and well-being of disabled veterans: The dual roles of institutional support and peer trust
Provisionally accepted
- 1Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China
- 2Renmin University of China, Beijing, China
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Existing studies have confirmed the positive association between social capital and subjective well-being, yet there remains a lack of systematic investigation into this relationship among disabled veterans. Drawing on a sample of 472 disabled veterans in China, this study examines the influence of structural social capital—measured by the breadth of social support networks—on subjective well-being. Two mediating variables are introduced: perceived effectiveness of government assistance (institutional resource utilization) and comrade trust (relational social capital). The study explores how structural social capital affects well-being through both formal and informal resource pathways and investigates the moderating role of policy awareness in shaping the boundaries of these effects. Using stratified sampling and ordered Logit regression models, the results show that: (1) a broader social support network is significantly and positively associated with the subjective well-being of disabled veterans; (2) both perceived government assistance effectiveness and comrade trust serve as significant mediators, indicating the dual embeddedness of institutional and relational resources; (3) the association between social support and well-being is moderated by policy awareness, suggesting a marginal substitution effect between formal and informal capital; and (4) the positive association between structural social capital and well-being is more pronounced among older veterans and those with less severe disabilities. These findings underscore the synergistic mechanism between institutional services and social network resources. The study recommends enhancing social support networks, improving institutional responsiveness, and increasing policy awareness while tailoring interventions by age and disability severity to more effectively transform social capital into psychological well-being.
Keywords: Disabled veterans, Social support networks, Subjective well-being, Institutional support, Peer trust
Received: 27 Jun 2025; Accepted: 07 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Wang, Lin, Cao and Guan. 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: Yu Cao, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China
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