Subjective Social Status and Positive Indicators of Well-Being among Emerging Adult College Students.
The current study extends research on social status and well-being among young people by examining whether subjective social status (SSS) is related to life satisfaction and happiness. Emerging adults (n=383) between 18 and 29 provided data on demographic characteristics, SSS, life satisfaction, and happiness via an online survey. Regression analyses revealed a positive association between individual and family SSS and both indicators of well-being, happiness and life satisfaction. Results provide evidence that perceptions of social status are associated with positive well-being. Positive well-being and dimensions of positive affect have been linked to physical health outcomes (Pressman and Cohen, 2005) and achieving success in both professional and personal domains of life (Lyubomirsky, King, and Diner, 2005). Knowing the relationship between internal evaluations of status and psychological well-being is beneficial for educators and clinicians in fostering and enhancing positive well-being among young people, which then will impact future success and health. KEYWORDS: Subjective social status, happiness, life satisfaction, emerging adulthood ********** Researchers across the social sciences have long been interested in the relationship between social status and well-being among young people. Although most of this research has focused on the effects of poverty and low socioeconomic status on negative outcomes in children (McLoyd et al. 2009), researchers have become increasingly interested in positive dimensions of well-being among older samples. Research has suggested that those from socioeconomically disadvantaged families are less likely to report optimism, happiness, and life satisfaction (Ash and Huebner, 2001; Finkelstein, Kubzansky, Capitman, and Goodman 2007; Khullar, Oreskovic, Perrin, and Goodman, 2011; Levin et al. 2011). Moreover, they are at risk for mental health problems, poor health, and school dropout than their more advantaged counterparts (e.g., Goodman, McEwen, Dolan, Schafer-Kalkoff, and Adler 2005; Goosby 2007; Haveman, Wolfe, and Spaulding 1991; Wadsworth, Raviv, Compas, and Connor-Smith 2005). Regarding socioeconomic standing, researchers have primarily used objective measures such as economic resources and human capital (e.g., income, education, occupational prestige) to measure social status. A growing body of research has suggested that adolescents' perceptions of their own social position at school and their families' position in society are also important to consider and may have differential effects on well-being than objective measures of status. Research with American samples has suggested, for example, that perceived individual social status is negatively associated with depressive symptoms (Goodman et al. 2001), obesity (Goodman et al. 2001; 2003), and body mass index (Lemeshow et al. 2008), and positively associated with self-rated health (Goodman, Huang, Schafer-Kalkhoff, and Alder 2007; Karvonen and Rahkonen 2011). Furthermore, recent data from the National Comorbidity Survey Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A) has suggested that adolescents' perceptions of social status are more strongly and consistently associated with mental disorders than other relative measures of status or parent education and family income (McLaughlin, Costello, Leblanc, Sampson, and Kessler 2012). An important unanswered question addressing both of these gaps in the extant literature is whether perceptions of social status also relate to positive dimensions of well-being in young people. Researchers have conceptualized well-being as involving not only the absence of problems and disorder, but also the presence of positive subjective experiences such as satisfaction, happiness, and optimism (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi 2000). Satisfaction, happiness, and optimism have been associated with a number of other desirable outcomes in youth. Research with children and adolescents has suggested, for instance, that life satisfaction is positively associated with social skills and self-esteem (e. …