Zhang Zhang Chen, 2017

• Paste quoted text on the next line. Do not include quotation marks or a bullet mark:

The second mental health and SWB measure is the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale (CES-D) developed by Radloff (1977), a self-reported scale designed to measure the current level of depressive symptomatology in the general population.

• Write your translation on the next line:

The second method they used in their research on mental health and subjective well-being (SWB) was the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale (CES-D) developed by Radloff (1977). This scale works by having the public self-report indicators of ill-health or distress, in this case depression, where it can be measured to capture the frequency of these emotions and behaviours. This was used to compose part of their graph.

• Paste quoted text on the next line. Do not include quotation marks:

To address these concerns, we employ a novel national longitudinal survey in China with rich measures of hedonic and evaluative happiness as well as mental health in combination with contemporaneous air quality and weather conditions at the time and place of each interview.

• Write your translation on the next line:

The authors used a national survey in China that keeps track of people over time to measures pleasant (or unpleasant) sensations and evaluate their happiness. When this survey is conducted, they will be able to collect information on air quality and weather in that period for each interview as well.

• Paste quoted text on the next line. Do not include quotation marks:

The impact of air quality on happiness is only slightly smaller than that of relative income, the commonly regarded key contributor to the paradox. The findings suggest that the GDP-obsessed development strategy in China has not brought about improved happiness.

• Write your translation on the next line:

They found that the air quality impact on happiness was only slightly smaller than relative income. This is an important key as relative income is viewed as one of the main contributors to happiness. This finding suggests that China’s commitment to economic growth, has not led to improved happiness within the population.

• Paste quoted text on the next line. Do not include quotation marks:

Although bad daily air quality does not affect much overall life satisfaction, it lowers hedonic happiness and raises the rate of depressive symptoms. In particular, people who are more concerned with environmental problems, work outdoors, earn lower incomes, reside in less polluted areas, or have young children are more sensitive to air pollution.

• Write your translation on the next line:

They have concluded that although living in a place with poor air quality may not have visible effects on your life, the effects slowly pile up decreasing overall happiness and increase depressive symptoms experiences during one’s life span. The people who are most likely to experience less happiness and more depressive symptoms in their life due to air pollution are those who are worried about environmental problems, work outdoors, earn lower incomes, live in less polluted areas, or have young children as they are more likely to be sensitive to air pollution.

• What future research should follow up on this work?

The paper states that “evaluating a wider spectrum of the impact of air pollution provides useful information for public policies” which I agree with. Although, the paper has great results that could be useful in the right direction to fix this increase in mental health illnesses in polluted populations, more research and similar experiments will need to be conducted to have concrete results and way to propose a functional plan.

• What did you not understand about this paper, that someone else can help with? If you understood everything, then what did you find most challenging to understand?

This article used language that wasn’t too challenging to understand. However, reading the results on their graph was the most challenging as there are many acronyms representing many different places, organizations, or things I have never heard of.