College of Law and Public Management, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan, Hunan, China.
College of Education, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan, Hunan, China.
PLoS One. 2023 Jan 26;18(1):e0280318. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0280318. eCollection 2023.
Internet use has an important impact on the elderly health. Based on the data of China General Social Survey (CGSS) in 2017, Model 4 and Model 14 in PROCESS were used to test the mechanism of Internet use on the mental health of the elderly, and further compare the differences between urban and rural elderly. The results are that Internet can positively predict the mental health of the whole sample and the urban elderly, but it has no significant predictive effect on the rural elderly; Internet can negatively predict the alienation of whole sample and urban and rural elderly; Alienation has a partly mediated effect between internet use and mental health of the whole elderly; "Internet using-alienation-mental health" the second path was moderated by embodied cultural capital in the whole sample and in the urban elderly. The conclusions are that Internet has a protective effect on the mental health of the elderly, and the mental health can be improved by reducing alienation. Increasing the use of the Internet and embodied cultural capital is an effective way to improve the mental health of the elderly. It is necessary to provide more internet access opportunities for the elderly, especially those in rural areas, increase the accessibility of embodied cultural capital, and bridge the digital divide between urban and rural elderly.
互联网使用对老年人的健康有重要影响。基于 2017 年中国综合社会调查（CGSS）的数据，使用 PROCESS 中的模型 4 和模型 14 来检验互联网使用对老年人心理健康的影响机制，并进一步比较城乡老年人之间的差异。结果表明，互联网可以正向预测全体样本和城市老年人的心理健康，但对农村老年人没有显著的预测作用；互联网可以负向预测全体样本和城乡老年人的疏离感；疏离感在互联网使用与全体老年人心理健康之间存在部分中介效应；“互联网使用-疏离感-心理健康”的第二路径在全体样本和城市老年人中受到体现文化资本的调节。结论是，互联网对老年人的心理健康有保护作用，可以通过减少疏离感来提高心理健康水平。增加互联网使用和体现文化资本是提高老年人心理健康的有效途径。有必要为老年人，特别是农村地区的老年人提供更多的互联网接入机会，增加体现文化资本的可及性，缩小城乡老年人之间的数字鸿沟。
