The impact of experience and perceptions of social mobility on the life satisfaction of young people in Taiwan and Hong Kong

Abstract

This article, which is based on a comparative telephone survey conducted in 2016, examines the relationship between social mobility experience and the life satisfaction of people aged 18 to 35 in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Using both objective and subjective measures of social mobility, we found that young people’s perceptions of their own social mobility and that of the entire youth population correlated positively with life satisfaction. However, the objective upward experiences of intragenerational and intergenerational mobility did not have a significant effect on life satisfaction. In addition, the objective upward experiences of individuals were found to be uncorrelated with the perceptions of their own social mobility and that of the entire youth population. These findings suggest that young people will not become more satisfied even if they themselves have actually experienced upward mobility, because their positive perception of social mobility depends on whether they can move upward to their desired status. It is the expected social mobility and the competence to achieve rather than the actual past mobility experience that could affect the life satisfaction of the young generation in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

The heterogeneous well-being effects of intergenerational mobility perceptions

“…The studies of German and Polish respondents show that perceived social mobility is associated with, respectively, life satisfaction and self-rated health (Gugushvili et al, 2022; Präg and Gugushvili, 2021). The latter findings are in line with those of a South Korean study which shows that life satisfaction is significantly linked to individuals’ perception of doing better than their parents did (Hsiao et al, 2020).…”

The double-edged effect of social mobility belief on socioeconomically disadvantaged adolescents’ health: The mediating role of intentional self-regulation.

“…Social mobility belief is correlated with fewer behavioral problems (Browman et al, 2019) and greater happiness (Hsiao et al, 2020; Zhao et al, 2021). Moreover, disadvantaged adolescents with higher social mobility belief have more positive emotional experiences and exhibit more aspirant behavior (Browman et al, 2017, 2019).…”

Subjective Social Mobility among Migrant Children in China

“…People's class identification also affects subjective social mobility [33,34] because their values, happiness, and political attitudes are related to their perceptions of their position on the social ladder [35]. As Figure 1 shows, migrant children's class identification is controlled in the model.…”