Seeking pleasure or growth? The mediating role of happiness motives in the longitudinal relationship between social mobility beliefs and well-being in college students

Emerging research has suggested that upward social mobility belief (i.e., perceived chance for moving up socioeconomic ladder through personal merits) may influence people's well-being but has not addressed why. This two-wave longitudinal study aimed to explicate the mechanisms by testing the indirect effect of social mobility belief on college students' well-being through motives to pursue hedonia and eudaimonia in daily activities. A total of 906 Chinese college students (mean age = 19.61, SD =1.03) completed two surveys with an interval of one year. Autoregressive path analyses showed significant indirect effects of social mobility belief on life satisfaction, positive affect and meaning in life (but not negative affect) through eudaimonic motives (but not through hedonic motives). Social mobility beliefs at Time 1 predicted increased eudaimonic motives at Time 2, and eudemonic motives at Time 1 predicted increased well-being at Time 2, adjusting for outcomes assessed at Time 1. The current findings highlight the important roles of socioeconomic worldview and happiness motives in explaining outcomes of well-being.

Automated summary

The study found significant indirect effects of upward social mobility belief on life satisfaction, positive affect, and meaning in life among college students through motives related to pursuing eudaimonia in daily activities.