| Sumario: | Purpose In order to describe the process of technology adaptation among older adults, the technology acceptance model (TAM) and concepts that focused on the self-efficacy are widely disseminated. While the TAM assumes that the perceived usefulness and the perceived ease of use are the best predictors of the behavioral intention to use a technology (Davis, 1989), the self-efficacy focuses on the subjective perception of one's own competences (Bandura, 1997). The integration of both concepts takes place in TAM3, in which self-efficacy plays only a subordinate role as a rated factor of perceived ease of use (Venkatesh & Bala, 2008). This contradicts studies that identified self-efficacy as an important resource for the use of the Internet among older adults (Jokisch et al., 2020). The present study should address these issues and applies the TAM to Internet adoption of a large group of urban older adults, while also focusing on the role of Internet self-efficacy and prior Internet experience. Method A sample of 1,200 older adults (M=73 years; 57% female) aged 60 gathered in the city of Stuttgart (Germany) was included. Besides sociodemographic variables, key variables of the TAM were adapted to the Internet and Internet self-efficacy was assessed. Results & Discussion Latent structural equation modelling revealed that perceived usefulness was a weak significant predictor of the behavioral intention to use the Internet among older adults. In contrast to our assumptions, perceived ease of use did not represent a significant predictor for behavioral intention. The importance of Internet self-efficacy was reflected in strong links to all factors of the TAM. The significant relation between Internet self-efficacy and perceived usefulness showed that a basic level of Internet self-efficacy is necessary to recognize the usefulness of the Internet. Overall, this may indicate that older people's Internet use is more focused on their perception of their own abilities and less on the characteristics of the technology as represented in the TAM.
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