Effects of Subjective Socioeconomic Status on Relative Deprivation and Subjective Well-being among College Students: Testing the ‘Silver-Spoon-Discourse’ based Belongingness in Korean Society

Abstract

The ‘Sliver-Spoon-Discourse’ is currently witnessing growing complaints about the polarization and a sense of despair among many young people in Korean society. The ‘Sliver-Spoon-Discourse’ that compares one’s subjective socioeconomic status to a spoon implies a sense of psychological superiority or deprivation. The present study empirically tested the current popular ‘Sliver-Spoon-Discourse’ based belongingness and explored how subjective socioeconomic status may affect the psychology of young people. This study examined the effects of subjective socioeconomic status on individual relative deprivation and subjective well-being. Data were collected from 307 undergraduate students enrolled at universities located in Seoul with both parents alive. The findings of this study were as follows. First, student respondents reported moderate levels of subjective socioeconomic status, relative deprivation, and subjective well-being. Second, after controlling for respondents’ gender, age and family income, the students’ subjective socioeconomic status was negatively associated with their level of relative deprivation. Finally, after controlling for respondents’ sociodemographic characteristics, the students’ subjective socioeconomic status was not significantly related to all the three sub-factors of life satisfaction, positive emotion and negative emotion as well as total subjective well-being. The results indicate that ‘Sliver-Spoon-Discourse’ based belongingness may instigate relative deprivation of young people without affecting their subjective well-being. The implications of the results are discussed for youth programs and policies. Keywords: Silver-Spoon-Discourse, subjective socioeconomic status, relative deprivation, subjective well-being