Colloquium in May 2026
Sungkyun Lee (University of Ulsan)
It is generally known that depression is higher among the poor than among the non-poor, but there is not much empirical research on the specific socio-psychological pathways through which poverty influences depression.
This study thus identifies the direct effects of poverty on depression, using raw data from the 2025 Korean General Social Survey, and examines the mediating effects of subjective factors such as economic and health satisfaction and social loneliness.
Constructing a new scale for depression, the paper analyzes parallel or serial multiple mediation effects using Andrew F. Hayes’ Process Macro.
The empirical analysis shows that poverty does not directly affect depression, but rather influences it through the mediation of subjective factors such as satisfaction and loneliness.
