ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Health Psychology
Volume 15 – 2024 |
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1462398
Provisionally accepted
Northwest University, Xi’an, China
The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.
Mental health is the cornerstone of public health, especially where middle-aged and older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic were concerned. The impact of Internet usage on mental health in the time of the crisis still presents a mixed picture. This study employs the PSM-DID method according to longitudinal data (CFPS) to explore whether Internet usage reduced the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of middle-aged and older adults. The results reveal that Internet use improves the mental health of middle-aged and older adults in China, but that the impact varies between urban and rural residents. Greater marginal gains may be realized by enhancing the digital capacity of and narrowing the digital divide that exists among rural residents. Furthermore, the moderator effects model shows that people’s perceptions of the Internet have an impact upon the length of time spent online and its consequent effect on mental health. The enhancement of digital capacity and proper guidance in digital education should be taken into consideration where the mental health of middle-aged and older adults is at issue.
Keywords:
Internet use, Mental Health, Middle-aged and older adults, COVID-19 pandemic, PSM-DID method
Received:
10 Jul 2024;
Accepted:
01 Oct 2024.
Copyright:
© 2024 Yang, Wang and Zhao. 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:
Bo Yang, Northwest University, Xi’an, 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.
link