Social Capital in a Meritocracy: Understanding Class Inequalities in Young Adults’ Life Satisfaction
摘要
Young adults from families with lower socio-economic statuses consistently report lower life satisfaction than their peers from families with higher socio-economic statuses, which in turn affects later-life socio-developmental outcomes such as mental health, income, and relationship satisfaction. Possible pathways from family socioeconomic status to life satisfaction include social capital and civic participation, but few have empirically examined these relationships among young adults, especially in a context with relatively high social mobility and strong meritocratic ideals. Drawing on two waves of data from a longitudinal panel survey of Singaporean young adults (n = 3,253) collected in 2020–2021, we examine whether upper-class social networks, lower-class social networks, and civic participation mediated the relationship between family socio-economic status and life satisfaction. We found that higher family socioeconomic status was associated with a greater volume of upper-class networks and a lower volume of lower-class networks. Additionally, only upper-class networks mediated the relationship between higher family socio-economic status and life satisfaction. These findings suggest that unequal access to upper-class networks may explain class inequalities in young adults’ life satisfaction. However, findings from this study do not identify the specific resources that upper-class social networks confer to young adults’ life satisfaction, which lower-class networks lack. Policymakers and researchers should continue to examine ways to equalize young adults’ access to upper-class network ties across social classes, while further examining the specific mechanisms by which upper-class networks enrich young adults’ life satisfaction.