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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1470965
This article is part of the Research Topic Impact of digital addiction on mental health and comorbidities in older adults View all articles

A Study of the Impact of Internet Use on the Mental Health of Rural Elderly -Empirical analysis based on China General Social Survey (CGSS) 2021 data

Provisionally accepted
JiangWei Hu JiangWei Hu 1GUOCai ZHANG GUOCai ZHANG 1*Mingda Wang Mingda Wang 2
  • 1 Hubei University of Arts and Science, Xiangyang, China
  • 2 National University of Malaysia, Bangi, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In the context of the era of both digitization and aging, Internet use plays an important role in helping rural elderly to actively integrate into the digital society and improve their mental health. Based on the latest data from the China General Social Survey (CGSS) 2021, the study used linear regression analysis to explore the impact of Internet use on the mental health of rural elderly and the mediating role of social participation. The results show that: (1) Internet use is significantly and positively related to the mental health of rural elderly, and (2) internet use can have an indirect effect on the mental health of rural elderly through two pathways: (a) the complete mediating effect of social participation; (b) partial mediating role of friend-gathering type participation. In addition, this study utilized this latest development to propose some suggestions to strengthen the measures of internet use in promoting the mental health of rural elderly.

    Keywords: Internet use, Rural elderly, Mental Health, CGSS, Social Participation

    Received: 05 Aug 2024; Accepted: 02 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Hu, ZHANG and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: GUOCai ZHANG, Hubei University of Arts and Science, Xiangyang, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.