Social mobility; Subjective well-being; Social production function theory; Dissociative hypothesis; Longitudinal data
Abstract :
[en] Status is a major determinant of subjective well-being (SWB). This is one of the primary assumptions of social production function theory. In contrast, the dissociative hypothesis holds that upward social mobility may be linked to identity problems, cognitive distress, and reduced levels of SWB because of lost ties to one’s class of origin.
In our paper, we use panel data from the United Kingdom (British Household Panel Survey) and Switzerland (Swiss Household Panel) to test these hypotheses. These two countries are compared because historically, social inequality and upward mobility have played distinct roles in each country’s popular discourse.
We conduct longitudinal multilevel analyses to gauge the effects of intragenerational and intergenerational upward mobility on life satisfaction (as a cognitive component of SWB), controlling for previous levels of life satisfaction, dynamic class membership, and well-researched determinants of SWB such as age and health problems.
Our results provide some evidence for effects of social class and social mobility on well-being in the UK sample, however, there are no such effects in the Swiss sample. The UK findings support the idea of dissociative effects, that is, intergenerational upward mobility is negatively associated with SWB.
Disciplines :
Sociology & social sciences
Author, co-author :
Samuel, Robin ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Language and Literature, Humanities, Arts and Education (FLSHASE) > Integrative Research Unit: Social and Individual Development (INSIDE)
Hadjar, Andreas ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Language and Literature, Humanities, Arts and Education (FLSHASE) > Education, Culture, Cognition and Society (ECCS)
External co-authors :
no
Language :
English
Title :
Upward social mobility and life satisfaction: the cases of United Kingdom and Switzerland
Publication date :
2015
Event name :
Understanding Society Scientific Conference 2015
Event date :
21st to 23rd July 2015
Audience :
International
Journal title :
Longitudinal and Life Course Studies
ISSN :
1757-9597
Publisher :
Society for Longitudinal and Life Course Studies, United Kingdom
Special issue title :
Supplement: Understanding Society Scientific Conference 2015 Abstracts