Publication Type
Book Chapter
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
1-2018
Abstract
Life goals induce one’s current investment and set one’s expectations of future outcomes, affecting one’s current state of subjective wellbeing. Using National Youth Survey (NYS) 2016, which has a representative sample of Singaporean youths, we find that non-zero-sum life goals such as family-oriented life goals and altruism-oriented life goals enhance happiness and life satisfaction of Singaporean youths while career-oriented life goals, zero-sum in nature, reduce subjective wellbeing. Apart from personal motivations or life aspirations, perceived social mobility (in terms of career opportunity and meritocracy) matters positively in the subjective wellbeing of both youths in school and in the workforce. Family support and national capital (constructed using items on national pride, support for nation during crisis, sense of belonging, role in developing nation) are also important contributors to youths’ subjective wellbeing. Given family support is an important contributor to wellbeing, shrinking family size and rising divorce rate pose challenges to the wellbeing of youths. Our exploratory empirics showed an improvement of intergenerational education mobility over the various waves of NYS, and that upward mobility is an important channel of up-lifting the subjective wellbeing of youths in Singapore. Maintaining mobility and meritocracy are critical to youths’ wellbeing as the Singapore economy matures to a lower steady-state growth rate.
Keywords
Singapore, youth, survey, well-being, education
Discipline
Asian Studies | Behavioral Economics | Family, Life Course, and Society
Research Areas
Applied Microeconomics
Publication
The state of youth in Singapore: Research compilation
First Page
108
Last Page
123
ISBN
9789811148651
Publisher
National Youth Council
City or Country
Singapore
Citation
HO, Kong Weng.
Contributors of Singaporean youths' wellbeing: Life goals, family-community-nation capitals, opportunity and social mobility. (2018). The state of youth in Singapore: Research compilation. 108-123.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soe_research/2250
Copyright Owner and License
Publisher
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://www.nyc.gov.sg/en/initiatives/resources/national-youth-survey/
Included in
Asian Studies Commons, Behavioral Economics Commons, Family, Life Course, and Society Commons