The impact of Koreans' income level and evaluation of one’s lives on overall happiness: Verification of the mediation effect moderated by stress level

Abstract

Objectives This study aimed to explore the mechanisms linking income and happiness, focusing on how Korean individuals' self-evaluation of their lives and stress levels influence this relationship among various other variables. Methods To this end, we used the 2022 data from the National Assembly Future Research Institute's ‘Korean Happiness Survey’ to determine how stress regulates the impact of income level and life evaluation on happiness, and 12,998 people were surveyed, excluding those without personal income. The moderated mediation model was verified using the responses. Results As a result, first, the suitability of the measurement model was verified, and all direct effects between latent variables were found to be significant. Second, in the relationship between Koreans' income level and overall happiness, we confirmed through a conditional indirect effect test whether the indirect effect of life evaluation is moderated by stress. As a result, the conditional indirect effect was found to be significant regardless of the stress level. Conclusions Discussions and implications were described based on the results of this study, and suggestions for follow-up research were made.