Economic Insecurity and Wellbeing: Psychological Capital as a Mediating Resource and Cultural Orientation as a Boundary Condition

Abstract

Economic insecurity, defined as perceived financial instability and uncertainty, is increasingly linked to reduced wellbeing; however, the psychological mechanisms and cultural contingencies underlying this relationship remain insufficiently understood, particularly beyond Western contexts. The Conservation of Resources theory research would assume that a moderated mediation model that conceptualizes the intuition that economic insecurity mediates the wellbeing via the moderating effect of a psychological capital (hope, self-efficacy, resilience, optimism) can retest the economic insecurity- wellbeing relationship in a study. The ordeal that assumes that it mediates this test of the main hypothesis is cultural orientation (collectivism individualism). The data were measured using two-wave time-lagged study (time interval of 4-weeks; N 1 = 520; N final = 420) which was based on multi-source sample. The confirmatory factor analysis was used to establish reliability and validity (α = .84–.91; viability, C = .86-.92;  AVE >.50 ) and good model fit (X/df = .94 / TL = .93 /RMSEA =.058/ SRMR = .049). The structural equation modeling depicted the economic insecurity as a negative predictor of the wellbeing (β = -.38, p< .001; r = -.46) and psychological capital (r = -.42) and a positive predictor of psychological capital (r =. 55). The partial mediation and the moderation-analysis were supported by bootstrapping and they showed that the negative effect was mediated by collectivist orientation (buffer effect) (β=  0.15, p< .001). The affirmed mediation was the conditional indirect effect. The results provide information on the input contribution of the involved psychological resources and cultural circumstances to wellbeing considering the presence of an economically stressing environment.