Identity, socioeconomic status, and well-being: Does positively identifying with a group buffer the negative effect of low SES on well-being?

• Start date: 01 January 0001
• End date: 01 January 0001

Formal education has a large influence on social status, and educational achievement is seen as a personal responsibility. The resulting status hierarchy could therefore be seen as legitimately based on individual achievement. Less educated people therefore occupy a low status position for which they can be seen as personally responsible. In this project we investigate the consequences this has for the well-being of less educated people.

Stigmatised social groups can buffer negative effects on well-being by identifying with their group and building a positive group identity. Less educated people are likely to have difficulty in constructing a positive group identity because it is difficult to construct a positive identity around a negative attribute. It is therefore predicted that less educated people have lower average well-being.

However, two factors might buffer this effect. First, if less educated people perceive the class system as illegitimate, this implies that they reject personal responsibility for their situation. Second, if less educated people identify strongly with their own class this creates the potential for a positive group identity. Both mechanisms could reinstate the buffering function of positive group identity.

These issues are being investigated using secondary analysis of UK and international survey data.