{"title":"Diversity of purposes of use, time spent online, and depression among older Chinese Internet users.","authors":"Jia Li, Qi Wang, Xiaochen Zhou","doi":"10.1080/13607863.2024.2323953","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p><b>Objectives:</b> Previous studies on the associations between Internet use and older people's depression have mostly focused on single types of online activities, especially online social engagement. The current study investigated the diversity of purposes of Internet use and its interaction with the time spent online in shaping older Chinese Internet users' depression.</p><p><p><b>Method:</b> A sample of 974 Internet users aged 60 and above was adopted from the 2020 China Family Panel Studies wave. We adopted a latent class analysis (LCA) to explore the diverse purposes of internet usage.</p><p><p><b>Results:</b> The participants were classified into three distinct types: socializers, basic users, and maximizers. Basic users and maximizers use the Internet for various purposes, despite different intensities; socializers use the Internet only to keep connected with families and friends. Compared with basic users and maximizers, a longer time spent online among socializers was significantly associated with a higher level of depression.</p><p><p><b>Conclusion:</b> This study calls for a closer examination of online profiles among older Internet users; more attention should be paid to the potential harms of excessive Internet use for social reasons only among older adults. Practitioners should enhance older Internet users' digital literacy to maximize the wide-range benefits of Internet use and reduce potential health inequality.</p>","PeriodicalId":55546,"journal":{"name":"Aging & Mental Health","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Aging & Mental Health","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2024.2323953","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/3/4 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"GERIATRICS & GERONTOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Objectives: Previous studies on the associations between Internet use and older people's depression have mostly focused on single types of online activities, especially online social engagement. The current study investigated the diversity of purposes of Internet use and its interaction with the time spent online in shaping older Chinese Internet users' depression.
Method: A sample of 974 Internet users aged 60 and above was adopted from the 2020 China Family Panel Studies wave. We adopted a latent class analysis (LCA) to explore the diverse purposes of internet usage.
Results: The participants were classified into three distinct types: socializers, basic users, and maximizers. Basic users and maximizers use the Internet for various purposes, despite different intensities; socializers use the Internet only to keep connected with families and friends. Compared with basic users and maximizers, a longer time spent online among socializers was significantly associated with a higher level of depression.
Conclusion: This study calls for a closer examination of online profiles among older Internet users; more attention should be paid to the potential harms of excessive Internet use for social reasons only among older adults. Practitioners should enhance older Internet users' digital literacy to maximize the wide-range benefits of Internet use and reduce potential health inequality.
期刊介绍:
Aging & Mental Health provides a leading international forum for the rapidly expanding field which investigates the relationship between the aging process and mental health. The journal addresses the mental changes associated with normal and abnormal or pathological aging, as well as the psychological and psychiatric problems of the aging population. The journal also has a strong commitment to interdisciplinary and innovative approaches that explore new topics and methods.
Aging & Mental Health covers the biological, psychological and social aspects of aging as they relate to mental health. In particular it encourages an integrated approach for examining various biopsychosocial processes and etiological factors associated with psychological changes in the elderly. It also emphasizes the various strategies, therapies and services which may be directed at improving the mental health of the elderly and their families. In this way the journal promotes a strong alliance among the theoretical, experimental and applied sciences across a range of issues affecting mental health and aging. The emphasis of the journal is on rigorous quantitative, and qualitative, research and, high quality innovative studies on emerging topics.