Perception of Social Change and Psychological Well‐Being: A Study Focusing on Social Change in Korea Between 1997 and 20001

Abstract

Focusing on the subjective perception of scope, pace, and evaluation of social change, this study investigated how social change is related to psychological well‐being. A theoretical model based on the transactional model of stress was built and tested with the data drawn from Korea using structural equation modeling. The results illustrate that the perceived scope and pace of social change were negatively related to psychological well‐being through the mediation of the evaluation of social change, which also mediated the relationship between coping resources and psychological well‐being. Coping resources also buffered the influence of perceived social change on psychological well‐being. The findings suggest that the subjective perception of social change is a crucial stress factor in understanding psychological well‐being.