Shan Zhao, Changhao Huang, Peilian Chi, Hongfei Du
{"title":"Economic Inequality Attenuates the Positive Relationship Between Perceptions of Social Mobility and Subjective Well-Being","authors":"Shan Zhao, Changhao Huang, Peilian Chi, Hongfei Du","doi":"10.1007/s11482-023-10263-z","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Economic inequality has been demonstrated to be deleterious to subjective well-being. The present study aims to uncover whether perceptions of upward social mobility would buffer the detrimental effects of economic inequality on subjective well-being. To answer this question, the current study utilized a large-scale nationally representative sample in China (<i>N</i> = 63,777) to investigate perceptions of social mobility, economic inequality, and their joint associations with subjective well-being. Multilevel modelling showed that individuals who perceived higher levels of social mobility (both in the past and in the future) had higher levels of subjective well-being, whereas economic inequality was not significantly associated with subjective well-being. More importantly, we found an interaction effect of perceptions of past mobility and economic inequality on subjective well-being. The interaction effect demonstrated that higher economic inequality reduced the positive relationship between past mobility and subjective well-being. These findings indicate perceptions of social mobility may have protective effects on subjective well-being, but such effects could be attenuated by unequal income distributions.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51483,"journal":{"name":"Applied Research in Quality of Life","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-01-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Applied Research in Quality of Life","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11482-023-10263-z","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"SOCIAL SCIENCES, INTERDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Economic inequality has been demonstrated to be deleterious to subjective well-being. The present study aims to uncover whether perceptions of upward social mobility would buffer the detrimental effects of economic inequality on subjective well-being. To answer this question, the current study utilized a large-scale nationally representative sample in China (N = 63,777) to investigate perceptions of social mobility, economic inequality, and their joint associations with subjective well-being. Multilevel modelling showed that individuals who perceived higher levels of social mobility (both in the past and in the future) had higher levels of subjective well-being, whereas economic inequality was not significantly associated with subjective well-being. More importantly, we found an interaction effect of perceptions of past mobility and economic inequality on subjective well-being. The interaction effect demonstrated that higher economic inequality reduced the positive relationship between past mobility and subjective well-being. These findings indicate perceptions of social mobility may have protective effects on subjective well-being, but such effects could be attenuated by unequal income distributions.
期刊介绍:
The aim of this journal is to publish conceptual, methodological and empirical papers dealing with quality-of-life studies in the applied areas of the natural and social sciences. As the official journal of the ISQOLS, it is designed to attract papers that have direct implications for, or impact on practical applications of research on the quality-of-life. We welcome papers crafted from interdisciplinary, inter-professional and international perspectives. This research should guide decision making in a variety of professions, industries, nonprofit, and government sectors, including healthcare, travel and tourism, marketing, corporate management, community planning, social work, public administration, and human resource management. The goal is to help decision makers apply performance measures and outcome assessment techniques based on concepts such as well-being, human satisfaction, human development, happiness, wellness and quality-of-life. The Editorial Review Board is divided into specific sections indicating the broad scope of practice covered by the journal. The section editors are distinguished scholars from many countries across the globe.