Because of rapid socioeconomic, political, and institutional shifts, 60% of people in the United States have experienced upward or downward social mobility (OECD, 2018). Researchers have traditionally measured mobility through objective markers, including changes in income, occupation, and education. Although informative, these indicators fail to accurately capture (a) subjective experiences that differ across economic cultures (e.g., earning $50K in a rural area vs. in a city) and (b) psychological consequences of perceived social mobility (Kim et al., 2023; Liu et al., 2004). Thus, it is critical to examine how individuals themselves interpret and evaluate their mobility experiences. Given the dearth of research, Constructivist Grounded Theory (Charmaz, 2014) was employed to answer our research question: How do people define and evaluate their social mobility experiences?


We conducted interviews with 22 people who self-identified as upwardly or downwardly mobile. Recruitment occurred through flyers, social media, and snowball sampling to ensure triangulation and sample diversity. We regarded participants as experts of their lived experiences. We analyzed our data in Dedoose and found seven axial codes.
Seven domains of social mobility indicators include: (1) economic capital (familial care through financial provisions, eligibility of government aid, active/passive income and job, spectrum of luxurious possession, and spectrum of resources to meet basic needs), (2) institutional/systemic capital (racial hierarchy, privilege/marginalization, education, status), (3) cultural capital (hidden curriculum, intergenerational transmission, status signaling), (4) relational capital (power, social capital/support, trauma), (5) eudaimonic capital (emotions, meaning, autonomy, achievement), (6) temporal and intergenerational capital (future outlook, intergenerational wealth, time), and (7) ecological comparison (across peers, family, community, nation, and international contexts). These findings extend conceptualizations of social mobility beyond conventional structural metrics to include subjective, relational, and contextual dimensions. Integrating these perspectives advances applied psychology by bridging sociology and psychology and by highlighting new ways to understand inequality and social development.