Two Latent Groups Influencing Subjective Social Status: Middle Class Tendency and Clear Class Consciousness

Sudo, Naoki

doi:10.1007/s11205-021-02731-6

Original Research
Published: 13 June 2021

Two Latent Groups Influencing Subjective Social Status: Middle Class Tendency and Clear Class Consciousness

Naoki Sudo ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3589-9418¹

Social Indicators Research volume 158, pages 1045–1064 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Previous studies clarified that many individuals tend to attribute themselves into the middle-class, explaining this tendency by referring to group reference theory. This article aims to explore the formation of subjective social status from a different point of view. To do so, the author analyzed the data from the Stratification and Social Psychology Interview Survey in 2010 (SSP-I 2010) and the Stratification and Social Psychology Survey in 2015 (SSP 2015), which were conducted in Japan. The results of the analyses reveal that the population can be categorized into two latent groups: one demonstrates a middle-class tendency in distributions of subjective social status, and the other demonstrates a clear class consciousness. The former group was composed of wealthy individuals, and the latter group was composed of not-wealthy individuals. Furthermore, the results also clarified that the composition rates of the two latent groups had been stable from 2010 (a period of economic stagnation) to 2015 (a period of economic boom), irrespective of socio-economic changes. Finally, the author discusses the implications of these findings.

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The SSP Project (http://ssp.hus.osaka-u.ac.jp/) allowed me to use the SSP-I 2010 and the SSP 2015.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank anonymous reviewers of Social Indicators Research for their helpful comments and suggestion. I would also like to thank the SSP Project (http://ssp.hus.osaka-u.ac.jp/) for giving me permission to use the SSP-I 2010 and the SSP 2015. This research is supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI (19H00609, 21H00776). Part of the earlier idea of this study were presented in the ASA 114th Annual Meeting.

Funding

This research is supported by the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (19H00609, 21H00776).

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Graduate School of Social Sciences, Hitotsubashi University, 2-1 Naka, Kunitachi, Tokyo, 186-8601, Japan
Naoki Sudo

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Sudo, N. Two Latent Groups Influencing Subjective Social Status: Middle Class Tendency and Clear Class Consciousness. Soc Indic Res 158, 1045–1064 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-021-02731-6

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Accepted: 04 June 2021
Published: 13 June 2021
Issue Date: December 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-021-02731-6

Keywords

Subjective social status
Middle-class tendency
Class consciousness
Social inequality