ABSTRACT
The administrative burden framework suggests that citizens experience psychological costs when interacting with the state. Previous research has primarily focused on context-specific psychological costs, such as stress and loss of autonomy related to particular policies or encounters. This study expands the framework by integrating it with the relational model of authority and the stress and coping theory, and proposes that negative bureaucratic encounters have an adverse impact on citizens’ general psychological well-being, with cognitive human capital serving as a mitigating factor. Using a large-scale representative longitudinal survey dataset from China, we test relevant hypotheses. The empirical analysis demonstrates that exposure to negative bureaucratic encounters is associated with poorer mental health, while formal education helps mitigate the impact. These findings underscore the significant influence of bureaucratic encounters on citizens’ well-being.