Trajectories of Satisfaction with Life Following a Collective, Critical Life Event and Their Relationship with Sociodemographic Factors and Internal Migration: The Example of the German Reunification 1989/90

There are considerable interindividual differences in adjustment processes in satisfaction with life (SWL) following critical life events. We focused on a collective life event, the German reunification in 1989/90, which prompted fundamental changes in the political, social, and economic conditions to investigate the heterogeneity of short- and long-term trajectories of SWL and their association with sociodemographic factors and internal migration. Using data (short-term: 1990–1994, long-term: 1990–2019) from the German Socioeconomic Panel (N = 5548), we applied growth mixture modelling with categorical time for short-term and continuous (quadratic) time for long-term trajectories. Multinomial logistic regression was used to examine associations of the trajectories with internal migration (West German (reference)/East German non-migrants, East-West/West-East migrants), baseline characteristics (sex, age, education, marital status, employment status, household income) and changes (becoming not employed, becoming divorced/separated, change in household income). The best models indicated four classes both long- and short-term, with the majority showing high stable SWL (86.7% (short-term) vs. 62.3% (long-term)); other classes were ‘improvement’ (2.5%, vs. 16.4%), ‘decline-improvement’ (5.2% vs. 9.4%), and ‘decline’ (5.6% vs. 11.9%). For short-term trajectories, East German non-migrants and East-West migrants were more likely to show unstable trajectories. Long-term, both East German non-migrants and East-West migrants had higher odds of increasing SWL, whereas West-East migrants had higher chances for decline-improvement. Differential associations with baseline sociodemographic characteristics and changes thereof were found. The study highlights distinct SWL trajectories following the collective event of German reunification. These trajectories vary based on short- versus long-term perspectives, sociodemographic background, and internal migration patterns.