The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of economic factors on life satisfaction to devise plans to increase life satisfaction, one of the most ultimate goals in human life, and further the moderating effects of psychological factors on the impacts of economic factors on life satisfaction.
For those purposes, the data were drawn from the seventh Korea Welfare Panel Study in 2012 and selected total 5,440 households after excluding the ones that did not answer in the life satisfaction survey. The characteristics of the subjects were analyzed with frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation. The factors influencing life satisfaction were analyzed with multiple regression analysis. The effects of moderating variables were tested with hierarchical regression analysis.

The findings led to the following conclusions:

First, the economic factors influencing life satisfaction were examined through multiple regression analysis. As a result, the households that had high income and total assets, that had low "monthly average debt payments/monthly average income" and "total debts/financial assets," that experienced no economic difficulty, that thought their subjective income bracket was in the upper class, and that expected economic situations would improve in a year, tended to show a high level of life satisfaction. Those findings support that such economic factors as income, asset, and subjective income bracket are important factors influencing life satisfaction. Of those factors, the "subjective income bracket" turned out to have the biggest influence on life satisfaction, which implies that subjective factors are more crucial factors than objective ones among the economic factors influencing life satisfaction.

Second, hierarchical regression analysis was carried out to see whether psychological factors would have moderating effects on the influence of economic factors on life satisfaction. The results showed that self-esteem had significant positive(+) moderating effects on the influence of income, "monthly average debt payments/monthly average income," and subjective income brackets on life satisfaction, and that depression had significant negative(-) moderating effects on the influence of income, "monthly average debt payments/monthly average income," and "experiences of economic difficulty." Those findings imply that psychological factors strengthen or weaken the degree of life satisfaction affected by economic factors, which calls for efforts to maintain such psychological factors as self-esteem and depression at an appropriate level as well as increase such economic factors as income and assets in order to raise the life satisfaction level.

Thirdly, the study further investigated differences in the moderating effects of psychological factors on the influencing process of economic factors on life satisfaction according to the income level. As a result, self-esteem had significant positive moderating effects on the influence of "monthly average debt payments/monthly average income", and "total debts/total assets" on life satisfaction in non-low-income households, and on the influence of "monthly average debt payments/monthly average income", and subjective income brackets on life satisfaction in low-income households. Depression had significant negative effects on the influence of income, "monthly average debt payments/monthly average income" and "experiences of economic difficulty" on life satisfaction both in non-low and low-income households, and on the influence of "total debts/total assets" on life satisfaction in low-income households.

Finally, the study also examined differences in the moderating effects of psychological factors on the influencing process of economic factors on life satisfaction according to socio-demographic factors. As a result, marked differences were observed according to age, spouse, and child. That is, both self-esteem and depression had moderating effects only according to the age groups of "in their forties" and "in their seventies or older." Given that those who were "in their seventies or older" could have the greatest economic difficulty due to the cessation of regular income after retirement, it is needed to provide a psychological modulation program to help the age group reduce financial stress. The finding that those who had a spouse or child were under the bigger influence of psychological factors than those who did not implies that there should be efforts to prevent family collapse in order to raise the life satisfaction level in modern society, where family disorganization such as divorce and separation happens in higher frequency than in the past.