School of Marxism, Hubei University of Economics, Wuhan 430205, China.
School of Sociology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 May 4;19(9):5575. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19095575.
Based on the 2018 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) data, we empirically analyze the effect, heterogeneity, quantile differences and influencing mechanisms of mobile Internet use on loneliness in the elderly. The study found that the loneliness of the elderly who used mobile Internet was 33.1% lower than that of the elderly who did not use the mobile Internet The study also passed the robustness test. There is heterogeneity in the effect of mobile Internet use on loneliness among the elderly of different ages, educational levels and marital status. Among them, the use of mobile Internet has a significant alleviating effect on the loneliness of the 60-70-year-old elderly, those of junior high school education level and below, and the elderly with a partner. The quantile regression analysis showed that the elderly group with a high level of loneliness benefited more from the use of mobile Internet. Mediation analysis further showed that mobile Internet use can improve parent-child relationship, increase offline interactions with children, and reduce children's tangible support, which we interpret as a potential mechanism for mobile Internet use to alleviate loneliness in the elderly.
基于 2018 年中国家庭追踪调查（CFPS）数据，我们实证分析了老年人使用移动互联网对孤独感的影响、异质性、分位数差异及其影响机制。研究发现，使用移动互联网的老年人的孤独感比未使用移动互联网的老年人低 33.1%。该研究还通过了稳健性检验。不同年龄、教育程度和婚姻状况的老年人使用移动互联网对孤独感的影响存在异质性。其中，移动互联网的使用对 60-70 岁的老年人、初中及以下教育程度的老年人以及有伴侣的老年人的孤独感有显著的缓解作用。分位数回归分析表明，孤独感水平较高的老年人群体从移动互联网的使用中获益更多。中介分析进一步表明，移动互联网的使用可以改善亲子关系，增加与子女的线下互动，减少子女的有形支持，我们将其解释为移动互联网使用缓解老年人孤独感的潜在机制。
