Feelings of Personal Relative Deprivation and Subjective Well-Being in Japan

Abstract

Personal relative deprivation (PRD) refers to emotions of resentment and dissatisfaction caused by feeling deprived of a deserved outcome compared to some reference. While evidence suggests that relative deprivation based on objective data such as income affects well-being, subjective PRD has been less explored, especially in the East. This study evaluated the relationship between PRD and subjective well-being based on various aspects in the context of Japan. An online questionnaire survey, including the Japanese version of the Personal Relative Deprivation Scale (J-PRDS5) and various well-being indices, was administered to 500 adult participants, balanced for sex and age. Quantitative data analysis methods were used. PRD significantly correlated with subjective well-being as assessed by various aspects. Through mediation analysis, we found that a strong tendency to compare one’s abilities with others may undermine subjective well-being through PRD. The results also indicated that well-developed human environments may be associated with the maintenance of subjective well-being levels, even when PRD is high. Toward developing future interventions to improve well-being and health, efforts must be undertaken in Japan to monitor PRD and further clarify the mechanism of the association between PRD and the factors that showed a strong relationship in this study.

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“…Different societies and cultures assign varying degrees of importance to different types of SWB and happiness, and the factors that contribute to SWB differ across cultures (Diener et al 2018). However, it is essential to note that certain universal factors that contribute to SWB, such as good health and social relationships, also exist (Diener et al 2018;Ohno et al 2023). Prior research has shown that SWB is negatively related to materialistic tendencies (Brown and Kasser 2005;Lee 2019;Ohno et al 2022) and feelings of personal relative deprivation (Ohno et al 2023).…”

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