Abstract
Introduction
Self-control refers to one’s ability to change or override dominant responses and to interrupt the tendencies of acting on them [1]. It is not only related to negative outcomes such as emotional and behavioral problems [1–4], but also linked with positive consequences like life satisfaction [5, 6].
Recently, there have been an increasing number of studies that investigate the relationship between self-control and life satisfaction [5–7]. For example, Hofmann and colleagues [6] investigated this issue using American samples, and found that self-control was related to higher levels of life satisfaction. This relationship has been replicated with different samples, including German citizens [5], younger [8] and elderly Chinese [7], and the Whitehall studies [9]. Furthermore, several factors have also been found to mediate this association. To illustrate, Hofmann and colleagues [6] suggested that self-control might influence life satisfaction by decreasing interpersonal conflict and negative emotion. Cheung et al. [5] demonstrated that people high in self-control showed more promotion focus (concerned with growth, advancement, and accomplishment) and less prevention focus (concerned with preoccupation with vigilance, responsibilities, and oughts), which were in turn related to higher levels of happiness. Li and colleagues [8] found that positive coping significantly mediated this association among Chinese university students and employees. Overall, these findings suggest that trait self-control is crucial for individuals’ life satisfaction, and that such relationships are mediated by multiple factors.
Linking self-control with life satisfaction provides a novel way for us to understand why some people may feel happier than others. Work takes up approximately half of an adults life and it is an important source of well-being [10]. However, little appears to be known about the relationship between self-control and life satisfaction in Chinese employees and whether some job-related variables (e.g., job satisfaction) would mediate this link. In the current study we explored the relation between self-control and life satisfaction in Chinese employees and the possible mediating role of job satisfaction.
The relationship between self-control and life satisfaction
Life satisfaction refers to a global evaluation of an individual’s quality of life based on his/her criteria [11]. The relationship between self-control and life satisfaction has been a salient issue in recent years. In their seminal work, Hofmann and his colleagues [6] hypothesized there could be three possible associations between self-control and life satisfaction: positive relationship, negative relationship, and no significant relationship. Their data supportedthe contention that self-control is positively related to life satisfaction, which could explain why people with higher levels of self-control are more successful in regulating negative emotions, better at managing conflict and balancing their performance in daily lives. This positive relationship has been replicated with German [5] and Chinese [7] samples.
The relationship between self-control and job satisfaction
When at work, employees are likely to experience various negative factors that may result in low job satisfaction, such as work stress, organizational injustice, boring tasks, and so on [12, 13]. To keep their jobs and achieve career success, employees must regulate work stress, inhibit the impulse to quit for financial reasons, and to spend more time focused on work than entertainment, all of which require exertion of self-control. Some previous studies have investigated the relationship between self-control and similar constructs such as delayed gratification and job satisfaction [14, 15]. For example, Rothman and Coetzer [15] found that self-discipline was positively related to job satisfaction in a sample of employees working in a pharmaceutical organization. Furthermore, Liu and colleagues [14] found that employees with higher vocational delay of gratification were more willing to inhibit temporary hedonic activity (e.g., a short-term gain vs. a long-term benefit) and put more effort into work, which lead to greater job satisfaction. This suggests that people with high levels of self-control may be more satisfied with their job than those with lower levels of self-control.
The relationship between job satisfaction and life satisfaction
Several studies have demonstrated a positive association between job satisfaction and life satisfaction [16]. Judge and Watanabe [17] used a longitudinal approach to investigate the association between job satisfaction and life satisfaction, finding that job satisfaction and life satisfaction were reciprocally related and that the effect of life satisfaction on job satisfaction was larger than the effect of job satisfaction on life satisfaction. Although life satisfaction influences job satisfaction to a larger extent longitudinally, some scholars have suggested job satisfaction should play a causal role in subjective well-being because one would take their job into account when rating overall life satisfaction [18]. In accordance with this view, in the present study we only examined the unidirectional path from job satisfaction to life satisfaction although we were aware of their reciprocal association. Based on prior findings [16, 18], we would expect job satisfaction to be positively related to life satisfaction.
The present study
From our review of the literature, we believe that employees with high self-control would be better to regulate work stress and deal with other work-related negative factors. This would lead to higher job satisfaction and therefore in turn result in more satisfaction with life. In sum, we hypothesized that: (1) self-control would be positively related to job satisfaction and life satisfaction, and (2) job satisfaction would serve as a mediator between self-control and life satisfaction.
Methods
Participants
Four hundred and eighty-two full-time employees (188 men, 294 women) from different cities in China were recruited through online advertisement in exchange for the chance to win 100 RMB. They were employed in different companies. Participants’ age ranged from 19 to 64 years of age(M = 29.02 years, SD = 5.30). The average tenure in the current organization was 48.71 months and the average annual salary of 65161 RMB (approximately $9,908 USD). Demographic characteristics of the current sample are presented in Table 1.
Measures
Self-control
Tangney et al.’s Brief Self-Control Scale (BSCS) was employed to assess participants’ self-control [1]. This scale was developed in the U.S., but has widely been used around the world, including China [3, 19]. The present research employed the Chinese version of BSCS that has been translated and used in previous studies [3, 19]. This measure consists of 13 items rated on a five-point scale (from “1 = not like me at all” to “5 = very much like me”). A total score can be obtained by summing up all the 13 items, and a higher score indicates better self-control. Sample items are “I am good at resisting temptation” and “I have a hard time breaking bad habits”. The Cronbach’s alpha of this scale was 0.81 in this study.
Job satisfaction
The Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire(MSQ) was used to assess participants’ job satisfaction toward their current job [20]. The present research employed the Chinese version of MSQ that has been translated and validated in previous studies among Chinese samples [21, 22]. Participants were required to indicate their degree of satisfaction on a 5-point scale (from “1 = very dissatisfied” to “5 = very satisfied”). This scale includes 20 items divided into two subscales (i.e., intrinsic satisfaction and extrinsic satisfaction). The intrinsic satisfaction subscale reflects ability utilization, achievement, and so on. The extrinsic satisfaction subscale reflects the quality of working conditions, how company policies are administered, and so on. In this scale, the scores of intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction were obtained by summing up its respective items. Sample items are “Being able to keep busy all the time” (intrinsic job satisfaction) and “the way company policies are put into practice” (extrinsic job satisfaction). The Cronbach’s alpha of intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction were.88 and.83 for the present study, respectively.
Life satisfaction
We used the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) to assess participants’ life satisfaction [11]. This scale has widely been used and translated in different language. The Chinese version of SWLS has been translated and validated and utilized among Chinese samples [23]. This scale includes 5 items rated on a 7-point scale (from “1 = strongly disagree” to “7 = strongly agree”). Summing up scores of the 5 items yields a total score and a higher score indicates more life satisfaction. Sample items are “In most ways my life is close to my ideal” and “The conditions of my life are excellent”. The Cronbach’s alpha of this scale was.88 in this study.
Procedures
Ethical approval was obtained from Jinan University. Participants provided their consent which was embedded in the online survey website 1 prior to completing self-report measures. They were informed that their identity would not be revealed and that only pooled data would be analyzed and reported.
Data analyses
First, we performed preliminary analyses to check whether participants’ life satisfaction was related to demographic variables (i.e., gender, age, annual salary, and tenure). Second, correlation analyses were conducted to explore the associations between self-control, job satisfaction and life satisfaction. Last, mediation analyses were carried out using Hayes’ [24] macro PROCESS (model 4). This macro allowed us to estimate two mediators simultaneously and to compare the difference in the mediating effect of the two mediators. Bootstrap technique was used to determine the significance of mediation. A rule of thumb of bootstrap sample should be at least 1000 [25], but we considered that this number of bootstrap sample was not sufficient and then we drew 5000 samples 2 . The mediating effect would be considered significant if the 95% CI excluded zero.
Results
Preliminary analyses
The independent t-test was performed to investigate possible gender differences in life satisfaction. Results showed that women (M = 4.20, SD = 1.29) reported higher life satisfaction than men (M = 3.62, SD = 1.47), t (480) = –4.55, P < 0.001, d = 0.41. Correlational analyses showed that life satisfaction was significantly related to age (r = 0.20, P < 0.01), tenure (r = 0.12, P < 0.01) and annual salary (r = 0.19, P < 0.01). Therefore, gender, age, and tenure were included in the subsequent mediation model.
Correlation analyses
We performed correlational analyses to investigate the possible relationships between self-control, intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction and life satisfaction. As shown in Table 2, trait self-control was significantly related to intrinsic (r = 0.24, P < 0.01) and extrinsic (r = 0.11, P < 0.01) job satisfaction as well as life satisfaction (r = 0.21, P < 0.01). Furthermore, both intrinsic (r = 0.35, P < 0.01) and extrinsic (r = 0.35, P < 0.01) job satisfaction were associated with life satisfaction. In sum, self-control, intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction and life satisfaction were positively correlated.
Mediation analyses
Mediation analyses were performed using Hayes’s [24] macro PROCESS (model 4). In these analyses, self-control and life satisfaction severed as independent and dependent variables, respectively, and intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction were the two mediators. Because life satisfaction was related to gender, age, tenure and annual salary, these demographic variables were put in the regression model as covariates.
Results showed that the mediation regression model was significant, R2 = 0.265, F(7, 474) = 24.44, P < 0.001. As expected, self-control was significantly related to life satisfaction (B = 0.28, S.E. = 0.09, t = 2.96, p < 0.01). Importantly, the relationship between self-control and life satisfaction was mediated both by intrinsic job satisfaction (estimated mediation effect = 0.101, 95% CI = [0.042, 0.195]) and extrinsic (estimated mediation effect = 0.046, 95% CI = [0.001, 0.112]) job satisfaction (Fig. 1 and Table 3). Furthermore, a comparison of the mediating effect was performed. The results suggested that there was no significant difference in the mediating effect between the two mediators, effect = 0.056, S.E. = 0.043, 95% CI = [–0.030, 0.142].
In sum, the current findings suggested that self-control was positively related to life satisfaction, and this relation can be explained by both intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction.
Discussion
The current research sought to investigate the relationship between self-control and life satisfaction as well as the mediating role of job satisfaction in a random sample of Chinese employees. As expected, we found that self-control was positively related to both job satisfaction and life satisfaction. More importantly, we also found that job satisfaction mediated the association between trait self-control and life satisfaction, and that there was no difference in the mediating effect between intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction.
Similar to the results of previous studies [5–7], the positive relationship between self-control and life satisfaction was found in the sample of Chinese employees. This provides further evidence that better self-control is likely related to higher levels of life satisfaction.
As noted above, employees with better self-control ability may be able to better regulate the difficulties and stresses they encounter at work, which may help them to gain higher achievements with more rewards leading to higher levels of job satisfaction. This in turn may let them feel more satisfied with life. In addition, we also found that the mediating effect of intrinsic job satisfaction was similar to that of extrinsic job satisfaction in magnitude, suggesting that intrinsic job satisfaction such as feeling autonomous and playing an important role in a team and extrinsic job satisfaction such as financial rewards and promotions are both vital in explaining the link between self-control and life satisfaction.
Our results have implications for intervention of Chinese employees’ life satisfaction and for future research in this area. First, according to the current findings, it is likely that increasing one’s self-control ability and job satisfaction would promote life satisfaction. Second, the relationship between self-control and life satisfaction has been replicated in different countries [5–7]. These parallel studies have paved way for future cross-cultural comparisons of the magnitude of this relationship. Previous studies have demonstrated that the influence of self-control on different negative outcomes such as emotional and behavioral problems shows similar pattern in different cultures and countries [4, 26]. As far as we know, little has been done to examine whether the effect of self-control on life satisfaction would be similar in different nations. This topic warrants further investigation. Solving this problem may shed some light on the promotion of employees’ well-being working in international companies. Third, although the relationship between self-control and life satisfaction is mediated by both intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction, we are aware that the sizes of these mediating effects are small. This implies that there are likely multiple mechanisms underlying the association between self-control and life satisfaction, and therefore future studies may also examine other possible mediators.
Some limitations should be noted. First, in this preliminary study we only employed self-report measures to investigate the relationships between self-control, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction. Future study should incorporate other approaches to investigate this issue. Second, we did not examine the hypothesized model separately for different industries. Because job satisfaction is influenced by job characteristics [18, 28], further study may also take job characteristics into account and explore whether such relationships are equivalent in different industries. Last, although the measures used in the present research are the ones validated by previous studies, it might be still possible that there are some artifacts regarding translation and therefore readers should be careful about this potential problem. Despite such limitations, this study contributes to the literature in that it extends the relationship between self-control and life satisfaction in the sample of Chinese employees, highlighting the importance of self-control to life satisfaction in an Eastern population. Furthermore, this research reveals a novel underlying mechanism—job satisfaction—of the link of self-control with job satisfaction, which may be specific to employees’ life satisfaction.
In conclusion, this preliminary research provides further evidence of the positive association between self-control and life satisfaction in a sample of Chinese employees and shows that the “self-control-life satisfaction” link among Chinese employees can be partly explained by job satisfaction.
Conflict of interest
The authors have no conflict of interest to report.
Footnotes
In the online survey website, before answering the self-report measures, participants were presented with a page of consent. If they were willing to take part in the study after reading the consent, they could continue by clicking “I agree to participate” and then they began answering the measures. If they were not willing to participate after reading the consent, they could withdraw by clicking “I don’t agree to participate” and then the study was ceased.
The number of bootstrap sample size is basically related to the complexity of the model. Given that the model is not complicated in the current research, we considered that 5000 bootstrap samples should be sufficient for our model.
Acknowledgments
This research is granted by “Yangcheng Scholar Research Project of Guangzhou” (Grant No. 12A010S) and the 13th “Five-year” Plan of Philosophy and Social Science of Guangdong Province (Grant No. GD16YXL01) and the 13th “Five-year” Plan of Philosophy and Social Science Development of Guangzhou (Grant No. 2016GZQN27).