Socioeconomic Differences in Young Adults’ Future Outlook and Associations with Perceived Fairness and Social Capital in South Korea

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The outlook of young adults on the future is closely tied to major life-course decisions, including marriage and childbirth, and it also influences their attitudes toward public policy, making it significant at the individual and societal levels. Understanding why some young adults maintain a more positive outlook for the future than others, even under similar socioeconomic conditions, remains an important academic and policy question. Using data from the 2021 and 2022 Korean Happiness Survey conducted by the National Assembly Futures Institute, this study examined 6,286 individuals aged 19-34 to determine how perceived fairness and social capital are associated with future outlook, and how these associations vary across socioeconomic groups. The results showed that the perceived fairness is significantly correlated with young adults’ future expectations. Among the lower-income groups, social networks and generalized trust were positively associated with an optimistic view of the near future. In contrast, among the higher-income groups, generalized trust and social participation—such as donation and volunteering—showed stronger associations. These findings suggest that the subjective perceptions of fairness are linked to young adults’ assessments of the present and their expectations for the future, and that different components of social capital shape future outlooks differently across income groups.