The Myth of Social Mobility: Subjective Social Mobility and Mental Health

Abstract

A common assumption is that upward mobility produces positive psychological outcomes. However, status-based identity framework and social class worldview model propose that perceived social mobility in either direction will lead to increased distress. Based on this claim, we examined relations among subjective social mobility, life satisfaction, and mental health using polynomial regression with response surface mapping. In Study 1, groups that experienced both subjective downward and upward mobility reported more depressive symptomatology than groups that remained in middle or upper social statuses in a sample of 567 adults. We did not find significant relations between subjective social mobility and life satisfaction. In Study 2, both groups that experienced subjective downward and upward mobility reported more depressive and academic distress symptomatology than groups that remained in middle or upper social social statuses in a sample of 7,598 clients from college counseling center data. The results provide insights relevant to multicultural counseling and training.

The Association Between Life Satisfaction and Subjective Social Mobility Status Among Women of Rasht City: A Cross-Sectional Analytical Study

“…various studies. According to Health selection theory, mental disorders either restrict upward mobility or cause it to decline, thereby influencing an individual's SES (6,7).…”

“…Several studies have shown that Iranian society has become more open in recent decades due to increasing opportunities for upward social mobility (13,14). Numerous studies indicate that subjective social status is linked to human health measures, with the assumption being that upward mobility has positive psychological effects (6). Life satisfaction, as the primary component of subjective well-being, is often used as the sole measure of subjective well-being in many studies (15).…”

Social Mobility and Vocational Outcomes: A Psychology of Working Perspective

“…These structural barriers and economic constraints involved in downward mobility may lead to limited work volition and career adaptability in the vocational development process, which restricts people from securing decent work. In general, downwardly mobile people tend to experience academic distress, which hampers their vocational development processes (Diewald et al, 2015; Kim et al, 2022), possibly leading to more challenges long term in the world of work. Specifically from a marginalization perspective, downwardly mobile workers from marginalized backgrounds are more at risk due to their lack of financial resources and capital; therefore, they tend to attain less decent work and experience discriminative organizational practices (Eggenhofer-Rehart et al, 2018; Guo, 2013).…”

“…In this regard, the most common way to conceptualize social mobility is via subjective social class or social status, with mobility occurring if an individual moves higher or lower across time in either of these categories (Lee & Dean, 2004; Liu et al, 2004; Liu & Ali, 2005). Although empirical research on social mobility in psychology is limited, a handful of studies have assessed social mobility by measuring where people rank their current and childhood social status (Kim et al, 2022).…”

“…Based on this operationalization, researchers have used objective socioeconomic (SES) indicators (e.g., Becchetti & Rossetti, 2009) to examine social mobility by comparing how people currently live with how they grew up and/or how their parents lived. Recently, scholars made attempts to measure changes in subjective social statuses (Kim et al, 2022) to reflect nuanced experiences of social mobility. Despite such efforts, social mobility may be a more complex concept than changes in SES and subjective social statuses.…”