Abstract:

As the social risks and people’s mental stress are augmented, mental problems like depression have aroused the attention of the government and society. From the perspective of people’s livelihood, this paper uses the CFPS2016 survey data to explore the impact of risk perception in the field of people’s livelihood on the mental health of urban residents with different social status. There are some relevant findings. First, the risk perception in the field of people’s livelihood has a significant negative impact on urban residents’ mental health, among which education and social security are the most influential. Second, the higher the social status, the higher the degree of residents’ risk perception, and the greater the impact of risk perception on their mental health. Third, although the disparity of mental health among people from different social status is narrowing with the increase of people’s risk perception, the residents in the higher social status still maintain a relatively high level of mental health due to the accumulation effect of income, wealth and other resources. In short, the impact of risk perception presents a new trend of both “stratification” and “de-stratification”. Based on this, some strategic suggestions can be put forward to improve the mental health of urban residents.

Key words: social status, risk perception, mental health, urban residents