Overview of the Relationship Between Overeducation and Well-being

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-475-4_83How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Well-Being; Mental Health; Overeducation; Job Satisfaction; Underemployment; Life Satisfaction

Abstract

Research has consistently shown that higher educational attainment is generally associated with greater life satisfaction and well-being, as it often leads to better employment opportunities, higher incomes, and increased social mobility. However, this positive relationship can be complicated by factors such as overeducation, potentially leading to feelings of frustration and diminished happiness. This paper explores the psychological and societal impacts of overeducation—a mismatch between educational attainment and job requirements—on individual well-being. Through a systematic review of interdisciplinary literature, the study reveals that while education traditionally enhances well-being through labor market advantages, overeducation undermines mental health by fostering perceived wage unfairness, relative deprivation, and career stagnation. Gender and immigration status further shape these effects: women report higher job satisfaction despite higher objective overeducation, while immigrants show resilience but endure persistent wage penalties. By addressing gaps between education systems and labor markets, this research emphasizes the need to redefine educational success, prioritizing equitable skill utilization over credentials, and calls for further empirical studies on well-being.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Leyi Guo
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/11/11
TI  - Overview of the Relationship Between Overeducation and Well-being
BT  - Proceedings of the 2025 10th International Conference on Modern Management, Education and Social Sciences (MMET 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 742
EP  - 750
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-475-4_83
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-475-4_83
ID  - Guo2025
ER  -