The Effect Of Subjective Social Class Onanxiety And Its Mechanism

With the rapid development of Chinese economy,the differentiation and consolidation of social class has become a serious problem in the present society.People who live at the bottom of the sociaty are extremely susceptible to anxiety due to lack of income,education and jobs.However,undesirably high level of anxiety not only endanger poor people's physical and mental health,but also make them unable to work efficiently and move up easily.Therefore,this paper focus on exploring the effect of subjective social class on anxiety and its mechanism,thus help disadvantaged groups find a way to relieve anxiety effectively.Study 1 aimed at preliminary explore the relations among subjective social class,anxiety level and sense of control by means of questionnaire.A total of 100 college students participated in the investigation that using The Mac Arthur Scale of Subjective Social Class,General Health Questionnaire(GHQ-20),sense of control self-rating questionnaire as research tools.The results showed that the subjective social class had a significant negative influence on participants' anxiety level.Besides,sense of control was the mediator between subjective social class and anxiety.In other words,college students from poor families were more prone to anxiety because they lacked sense of control.Study 2 went on further to investigate the potential moderating role of materialism between subjective social class and anxiety.A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data from 217 participants(including 164 employees).The results revealed a mediated moderation between subjective social class and anxiety.Materialism moderated the effect of subjective social class on anxiety,and the moderating process was mediated by sense of control.Based on previous questionnaire surveys,Study 3 adopted the experimental method to prove causal relationships between subjective social class,materialism,anxiety and sense of control.The experiment employed two 2(subjective social classes: high and low)x 2(materialism levels: high and low)between-subject designs and the dependent variables including anxiety level and sense of control.In the course of the experiment,the researcher manipulatd 112 participants' subjective social class and material value through social comparison method and picture rating task respectively.The analysis of variance showed that there was a significant interaction between subjective social class and materialism for both dependent variables.Specifically,highly materialistic participants' anxiety level and sense of control were significantly influenced by their social classes.Compared to participants who believe them belong to the upper-class,those who believe them belong to the lower-class feelmore anxiety and less sense of control.On the contrary,lowly materialistic participants' level of anxiety and sense of control had no concern with their subjective social classes.Through the above studies,this paper finds a mediated moderation between subjective social class and anxiety.1)Subjective social class has a negative effect on anxiety,individuals who see themselves belong to the lower-class had a higher level of anxiety than those see themselves belong to the the upper-class.2)Materialism moderates the effect of social class on anxiety.3)The process materialism moderates the effect of social class on anxiety is mediated by sense of control.According to these foundings,the lower social class should avoid materialism and cultivate sense of control,thus alleviate their anxiety.