Class Identification in Taiwan: A Latent Class Analysis

This paper uses latent class analysis to discuss three measures of class identification from the 1997 Taiwan Social Change Survey. The three measures differ in terms of number of offered class labels and the presence of a ”working class” selection. The data indicate that the latent structure of subjective class identification is comprised of five subjective classes and a category of people with no clear class awareness. The five subjective classes are latent upper-middle class, latent middle class, latent lower-middle class, latent working class, and latent lower class. Different labor market and workplace experiences, objective classes, and status positions tend to generate different perceptions between men and women regarding social class positions. The findings suggest that a ”working class” category should be included in surveys meant to measure subjective class identification, since it has strong connotations of current labor market participation and associations with skilled/unskilled laborers and service workers.