The Study On The Social Attitudes Of Rural Residents Groups

The economic reforms which began in 1978 have brought the Chinese society into a historical period of comprehensive transformation. With the continuous progress in the process of social transformation, the political, economic, cultural and other fields of our society have undergone tremendous changes. China has also entered the period with a variety of social problems as well as social conflicts. Among these problems and conflicts, social injustice and the rich-poor polarization became the focuses. The expansion of the urban-rural gap, the increasing number of the vulnerable groups in society and the unjust treatments to these groups which led to their negative social attitudes, caused great impact on social stability, and went against to a harmonious society. Groups of rural residents are at the bottom of vulnerable groups, their living conditions and psychological state are important to the harmony and stability of society as a whole.Rural residents groups with the minimum living standards, and their living conditions and psychological states have always been the state concerns. This research deeply analyses and summarizes the results of previous relevant domestic and international researches of social security and social attitudes. Moreover, through the field survey of 150 rural residents' living conditions in Nanjing, the research analyses their revenues, expenditures, the possession of durable goods, housing, social security and other aspects of the basic situation, and tries to explore the specific states of the rural residents' social attitudes in the context of rural society and the living condition of rural residents groups and the factors affecting their social attitudes. On this basis, the strategy of optimizing the social attitudes of rural residents groups is proposed.Contents and conclusions of this study are mainly as follows:from the study the living conditions of rural residents groups, we find that low level and single source of income make daily living expenses a main burden for these groups, and the lack of social security cannot meet their basic survival needs. Though the rural residents groups are living in poor conditions, they have got positive attitude towards the whole community. The degree of obedience to government is the most influential factor to social attitudes of these groups. The rich-poor polarization and the reasons to get rich attract most of the attention of the rural residents groups, but the attitudes of rural residents towards the illegal enrichment and unfair competition are very negative. These groups are also very negative to the personal-related unjust treatments and the national policies. The personal characteristics affect the social attitude of the groups as well, but its specific factors have different effects to the three dimensions of social attitude. The age and the objective level have significant impacts to the degree of obedience to government. Among these factors, the age and the degree of social security are obviously positive-correlated to the degree of obedience to government. Several factors are significantly effective to the attitude about the rich-poor polarization and the reasons to get rich including the age, the objective level, the interaction of gender*age and the interaction of age*objective level. The attitude to unfair policies is mainly affected by the age, the marital status and the interaction of age* gender.The social and environmental factors also have some influence on the rural residents groups'social attitudes. The construction of minimum living standard affects the degree of obedience to government, the social order influences the attitude towards rich-poor polarization, the living environment impacts the attitude towards the unfair policy.In order to optimize the social attitudes of rural residents groups, the social supports to them need to be increased. The optimization should be under the guidance of the concept of social justice, and based on the aspects like the rural poverty, the establishment of a fair social security policy, the promotion of social justice and the advocacy of positive social value.