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The association between internet use and depression among older adults in China: The mediating role of social networks
OBJECTIVE: In the aging world, the depression of older adults has aroused great concern. It brings detrimental side effects to old adults and the sustainability of society. The information and communication technologies have reshaped how people live among which the Internet has gained much popularit...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
SAGE Publications
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10586012/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37868154 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/20552076231207587 |
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author | Wang, Chenyang Zhu, Yuqi Ma, Jin Chu, Jianxun |
author_facet | Wang, Chenyang Zhu, Yuqi Ma, Jin Chu, Jianxun |
author_sort | Wang, Chenyang |
collection | PubMed |
description | OBJECTIVE: In the aging world, the depression of older adults has aroused great concern. It brings detrimental side effects to old adults and the sustainability of society. The information and communication technologies have reshaped how people live among which the Internet has gained much popularity in the senior community. This study aims to explore the association between Internet use and depression in older adults. METHODS: This study applied a representative national dataset (China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey, CLASS 2018) to examine by conducting regression analysis. Inspired by the social capital theory, we further examined the mediating role of general social networks (as a general concept) and specific networks (family and friend networks) in reducing depression. All calculations and analyses were conducted by STATA. RESULTS: (a) Internet use significantly reduces depressive symptoms among Chinese older adults; (b) internet use enhances social network support for Chinese older adults; and (c) social networks in general and family networks and friend networks in specific all play a mediating role between internet use and depression symptoms. CONCLUSION: This work proved that internet use could reduce depression levels in older adults in China, and social networks, including family networks and friend networks, have a mediation role in the relationship between internet use and depression in older adults in China. Combined with the Chinese social context, we explained that the existence of an empty-nest elderly community in Chinese society and the emphasis on kinship in Chinese tradition may be the reasons. Based on the main findings, tailor-made suggestions for addressing depression issues among older adults were discussed. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10586012 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | SAGE Publications |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-105860122023-10-20 The association between internet use and depression among older adults in China: The mediating role of social networks Wang, Chenyang Zhu, Yuqi Ma, Jin Chu, Jianxun Digit Health Original Research OBJECTIVE: In the aging world, the depression of older adults has aroused great concern. It brings detrimental side effects to old adults and the sustainability of society. The information and communication technologies have reshaped how people live among which the Internet has gained much popularity in the senior community. This study aims to explore the association between Internet use and depression in older adults. METHODS: This study applied a representative national dataset (China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey, CLASS 2018) to examine by conducting regression analysis. Inspired by the social capital theory, we further examined the mediating role of general social networks (as a general concept) and specific networks (family and friend networks) in reducing depression. All calculations and analyses were conducted by STATA. RESULTS: (a) Internet use significantly reduces depressive symptoms among Chinese older adults; (b) internet use enhances social network support for Chinese older adults; and (c) social networks in general and family networks and friend networks in specific all play a mediating role between internet use and depression symptoms. CONCLUSION: This work proved that internet use could reduce depression levels in older adults in China, and social networks, including family networks and friend networks, have a mediation role in the relationship between internet use and depression in older adults in China. Combined with the Chinese social context, we explained that the existence of an empty-nest elderly community in Chinese society and the emphasis on kinship in Chinese tradition may be the reasons. Based on the main findings, tailor-made suggestions for addressing depression issues among older adults were discussed. SAGE Publications 2023-10-17 /pmc/articles/PMC10586012/ /pubmed/37868154 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/20552076231207587 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). |
spellingShingle | Original Research Wang, Chenyang Zhu, Yuqi Ma, Jin Chu, Jianxun The association between internet use and depression among older adults in China: The mediating role of social networks |
title | The association between internet use and depression among older adults in China: The mediating role of social networks |
title_full | The association between internet use and depression among older adults in China: The mediating role of social networks |
title_fullStr | The association between internet use and depression among older adults in China: The mediating role of social networks |
title_full_unstemmed | The association between internet use and depression among older adults in China: The mediating role of social networks |
title_short | The association between internet use and depression among older adults in China: The mediating role of social networks |
title_sort | association between internet use and depression among older adults in china: the mediating role of social networks |
topic | Original Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10586012/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37868154 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/20552076231207587 |
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