The relationship between internet use and depressive symptoms among elderly in China.
With the rapid development of digital technology, the factors influencing the depressive symptoms of the elderly have undergone new changes. Most existing studies treat social support as a singular concept, without distinguishing between online and offline forms of support. This study aims to invest...
| Publicado en: | Behaviour & Information Technology Vol. 45; no. 12; pp. 2857 - 2878 |
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| Autores principales: | , , |
| Formato: | equations & formulas research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Aug2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=195656419&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 195656419 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 0144929X B6Q jtl: Behaviour & Information Technology issn: 0144929X maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Aug2026 vid: 45 iid: 12 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania artinfo: ui: 195656419 189875370 195656419 195656419 10.1080/0144929X.2025.2598607 195656419 ppf: 2857 ppct: 21 formats: tig: atl: The relationship between internet use and depressive symptoms among elderly in China. aug: au: Wang, Di Deng, Zhaohua Fan, Guorui affil: School of Management, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, People's Republic of China sug: subj: Internet Utilization Depression Prevention and Control Support, Social Educational Status Human Prospective Studies Mediation Analysis Funding Source Interpersonal Relations Middle Age Aged Aged, 80 and Over Male Female Multi-Stage Cluster Descriptive Statistics Data Analysis Software China Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale Scales Psychological Tests Middle Aged: 45-64 years Aged: 65+ years Aged, 80 & over Male Female ab: With the rapid development of digital technology, the factors influencing the depressive symptoms of the elderly have undergone new changes. Most existing studies treat social support as a singular concept, without distinguishing between online and offline forms of support. This study aims to investigate the relationship between two distinct sources of offline social support – family and friends – and Internet use, as well as their combined impact on depressive symptoms among the elderly. Furthermore, this study examines the moderating role of educational level on the mediating variables. This study formulates research hypotheses based on social support theory and socioemotional selectivity theory. For the empirical analysis, data from the 2018 and 2020 waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) were employed. The CHARLS data were collected using a stratified multi-stage PPS sampling method. After data screening, a total of 9,250 participants were included, corresponding to 14,373 valid samples. Methodologically, panel negative binomial regression models and moderated mediation analysis were applied to systematically test the proposed hypotheses. The results show that Internet use positively influences the reduction of depressive symptoms among the elderly, with offline social support from family and friends serving as partial mediators. Moreover, educational level weakens the indirect effect of Internet use on depressive symptoms through offline social support from friends. This study extends the theoretical understanding of depressive symptoms among the elderly from the perspective of social support and offers new insights for both theory and practice. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: equations & formulas research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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