The mediating role of community identity in the relationship between social class and life satisfaction: Evidence from Chinese community residents

Abstract

Research has shown that social class is an important predictor of life satisfaction. However, the underlying mechanism for this relationship is yet to be fully elucidated. The study examined the underlying mechanism based on the social identity approach to health. Study 1 recruited 577 community residents to complete self-report questionnaires. Correlation analysis showed that social class, community identity, and life satisfaction were positively correlated with each other. Regression analysis showed that community identity mediated the relationship. To increase the replicability and derive causal inference of the results, Study 2 was a randomized control trial ( N = 76) that used the resource-availability task to manipulate subjective social class, and found that life satisfaction in the lower-class group was significantly lower than that in the control group. Further analysis showed that social class predicted life satisfaction through the mediating role of community identity. The findings provide potential strategies to enhance community residents’ life satisfaction.