Entity embeddings, attention mechanisms and ordinal regression for predicting life satisfaction: a study of young south Korean male workers

Background: Young male workers in South Korea face unique challenges that can impact their subjective life satisfaction. This study aimed to develop and evaluate a novel machine learning model to predict their life satisfaction. Methods: We integrated Entity Embeddings with Attention mechanisms into an ordinal logistic regression framework. Entity Embeddings transformed categorical variables into dense vectors, while the Attention mechanism prioritized the most influential features. Model performance was compared against Random Forest, Gradient Boosting, and K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN) using metrics such as Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE), and R-squared (R2). Results: The Entity Embeddings with Attention model demonstrated superior predictive accuracy compared to all baseline models across all evaluation metrics. Ordinal logistic regression facilitated model interpretability, revealing key predictors of life satisfaction, including monthly salary, job satisfaction, company size, weekly working hours, and educational background. Conclusions: This study provides valuable insights for policymakers and employers to enhance the well-being of young male workers in South Korea. The proposed model offers a robust and interpretable approach for predicting subjective life satisfaction, enabling targeted interventions to address the specific needs and challenges of this demographic.