The influence of higher education based on machine learning on subjective well-being
摘要
As higher education becomes increasingly prevalent and accessible in China, a growing number of residents are afforded the option to pursue advanced studies. Can higher education genuinely enhance residents’ subjective well-being? The response to this enquiry necessitates additional investigation. This study selected 5 wave data of Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS), a total of 53,874 samples. Machine learning methodologies, including XGBoost and GBDT, were utilised for the inaugural correlation investigation between higher education and subjective well-being in China. Feature importance sorting elucidated the nonlinear correlations and interaction effects, such as the threshold effect of social fairness cognition on happiness, that typical regression models struggle to capture. (1) The average subjective well-being of the higher education group (4.005309) was significantly higher than that of the non-higher education group (3.835478), and the education level had a significant positive predictive role on subjective well-being (p = 0.000 < 0.05); (2) Machine learning uncovers substantial correlations between higher education and subjective well-being (