The impact of experience and perceptions of social mobility on the life satisfaction of young people in Taiwan and Hong Kong
| Published date | 01 December 2020 |
| DOI | 10.1177/2057891119848490 |
| Author | Po-san Wan,Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao,Victor Zheng,Kevin Wong |
| Date | 01 December 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Research articles |
Research article
The impact of experience
and perceptions of social
mobility on the life satisfaction
of young people in Taiwan
and Hong Kong
Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao
Academia Sinica
Kevin Wong
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Po-san Wan
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Victor Zheng
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 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 popu-
lation 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
Corresponding author:
Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao, Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, Nankang, Taipei 11529.
Email: michael@gate.sinica.edu.tw
Asian Journal of Comparative Politics
2020, Vol. 5(4) 319–336
ªThe Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/2057891119848490
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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.
Keywords
Hong Kong, life satisfaction, social mobility, Taiwan, young people
Introduction
It is widely believed that upward social mobility can increase an individual’s level of life satisfac-
tion by raising that person’s level of resources, which can help him/her to achieve a particular goal
and contribute to upward social comparisons (Ormel et al., 1999; Samuel et al., 2013). This
argument has spurred a research discourse on the relationship between social mobility and life
satisfaction. Most previous related empirical studies have focused on the effects of objective social
mobility, particularly income mobility (Ball and Chernova, 2008; Easterlin, 1974; Nikolaev and
Burns, 2014; Rojas, 2007; Tran et al., 2018; Veenhoven, 1991).
1
Recent studies have found a gap between objective social mobility and subjective assessments
of upward mobility, and have suggested that the perception of mobility may have a strong er
explanatory power for life satisfaction than the objective experience of upward mobility (Dolan
et al., 2008; Graham and Pettinato, 2002; Haller and Hadler, 2006; Johnson and Krueger, 2006). In
our study, we attempted to overcome this drawba ck by extending the measurement of social
mobility to both the objective experience of mobility and the subjective perception of mobility.
Most existing empirical studies used survey datasets collected in the United States and Europe
to investigate the relationship between social mobility and life satisfaction. In Asia, such cross-
country analyses on the effect of mobility us ing comparable microdata are seriously lack ing,
although many studies on subjective well-being in Asia have been conducted (e.g. Liao et al.,
2005; Yi, 2013). Attention is increasingly being paid to the impact of economic growth on life
satisfaction, given the rapid economic growth that has occurred in Asia in recent decades (Oshio
et al., 2011). We conducted a comparative survey in 2016 in two developed capitalist ethnic
Chinese societies with different political systems, i.e. Taiwan and Hong Kong,
2
where the cultural,
social, and economic situations are different from those in Western countries; then used the survey
data to analyze this relationship in the two societies.
The relationship between social mobility and life satisfaction is not merely of academic interest
but is also of practical significance to governments and political parties alike. The public’s support
for political institutions is always related to life satisfaction in society (Chen and Dickson, 2008).
In 2014, large-scale student-led social movements erupted first in Taiwan, then in Hong Kong. In
this wave of contentious movements, strong dissatisfaction was expressed with the government’s
performance, combined with a pro-democracy sentiment (Hsiao and Wan, 2018). It seems that
young people are becoming more pessimistic, frustrated, and anxious about their future because of
decreasing chances of upward mobility, despite significant improvements in education. The youth
problem is undoubtedly a key social pro blem in these ethnic Chinese societi es. Studying the
relationship between social mobility and the life satisfaction of young people will help to shed
light on the problem.
The aim of this article is to examine the relationship between so cial mobility and the life
satisfaction of young people in Taiwan and Hong Kong. The innovative potential of our study
320 Asian Journal of Comparative Politics 5(4)
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