貧窮學生不平等心理訊號與心理困擾：生活滿意度的間接關聯與調節作用

Inequality-Related Psychological Signals and Psychological Distress among Economically Disadvantaged Students: Indirect Associations and the Moderating Role of Life Satisfaction

研究目的：本研究聚焦貧窮學生求學日常中反覆可感的不平等經驗，檢驗三類不平等心理訊號（資源受限認知、金錢地位認同、機會結構信念）與心理困擾之關聯，並以生活滿意度評估間接關聯（主命題）與調節作用（進階檢驗）。研究方法：使用台灣貧窮兒少資料庫（TDCYP）三波在學樣本（N = 1，042），控制背景變項後以Bootstrap信賴區間檢定間接關聯，並以交互作用項估計調節作用。研究結果：第一，三類訊號皆與較低生活滿意度顯著關聯。第二，生活滿意度在三類訊號與心理困擾間皆呈顯著正向間接關聯；其中資源受限認知與機會結構信念在納入生活滿意度後仍保留直接關聯，而金錢地位認同之直接關聯不再顯著。第三，調節作用僅出現在「資源受限認知與心理困擾」路徑，生活滿意度愈高，資源受限認知與心理困擾之正向關聯愈弱，且在高生活滿意度條件下趨近不顯著。研究結論：心理困擾可視為不平等心理訊號持續暴露所累積的心理成本；生活滿意度既是主要關聯途徑，其緩衝作用亦具範圍性。

Purpose: Previous studies have demonstrated that students in poverty may experience psychological distress from repeated exposure to class inequality in everyday school life. Protective mechanisms and practices have yet to be empirically identified. Sociological theory indicates that life satisfaction may play this role. In this study, we clarified how inequality-related experiences at school are linked to life satisfaction and psychological distress for economically disadvantaged students in Taiwan in order to understand how class inequality becomes psychologically consequential in students’everyday school lives. We focused on 3 inequality-related psychological signals—perceived resource constraints, money-as-status endorsement, and opportunity-structure beliefs—and assessed whether life satisfaction serves as an indirect pathway (primary analysis) and a moderator (secondary analysis) between these variables and psychological distress. Methods: We analyzed 3 waves of in-school data from the Taiwan Database of Children and Youth in Poverty (TDCYP; N = 1,042). After controlling for background covariates, we tested the indirect associations between these variables and psychological distress using bootstrap confidence intervals. We examined moderation using interaction terms. Results: All 3 signals were significantly negatively associated with life satisfaction. We identified a significant positive indirect association between each signal and psychological distress through lower life satisfaction. After we entered life satisfaction into the models, direct associations remained for perceived resource constraints and opportunity-structure beliefs, whereas the direct association with money-as-status endorsement was no longer significant. Moderation emerged only for the pathway between perceived resource constraints and psychological distress: higher life satisfaction attenuated this positive association, which approached non-significance at high levels of life satisfaction. Conclusions: According to the literature, psychological distress may be a psychological cost accumulated through sustained exposure to inequality-related psychological signals in school life. Our results indicate that life satisfaction represents the primary indirect pathway identified in this study, but its buffering effect is limited in scope. These findings extend mental health research by showing how class inequality may relate to everyday psychological signals and overall life evaluation. These findings suggest that support strategies for economically disadvantaged students may need to address both psychological distress and class-related experiences.