Social participation of the elderly in China: The roles of conventional media, digital access and social media engagement

Abstract China is the most rapidly aging country and has the largest aging population in the world. However, social participation is an important intervention to boost the active and healthy aging. The present study investigated the effects of media usage, together with social-demographics and health variables, on Chinese older adults. Drawing upon a national research project with a representative sample (N = 1,399) of older adults (55+) from 58 cities in China, the research findings revealed that conventional media, digital access and social media usage had positive effects on older adults’ informal social participation, while age moderated the relationship between informal social participation and digital access, particularly regarding access to tablet PCs and smartphones. Moreover, conventional media, digital access and social media engagement largely explained seniors’ formal social participation regardless of their social-demographic backgrounds. Finally, the roles of conventional media and digital media in older adults’ social participation are discussed.

[1]  A. Newman,et al.  Index of Healthy Aging in Chinese Older Adults: China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study , 2018, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

[2]  D. Tian,et al.  Does social participation reduce the risk of functional disability among older adults in China? A survival analysis using the 2005–2011 waves of the CLHLS data , 2018, BMC Geriatrics.

[3]  F. Amaro,et al.  Coming of (Old) Age in the Digital Age: ICT Usage and Non-Usage among Older Adults , 2013 .

[4]  W. B. Fain,et al.  Social media gerontology: Understanding social media usage among older adults , 2015, Web Intell..

[5]  Y. Suzukamo,et al.  Correlation of Low Back Pain With Functional Status, General Health Perception, Social Participation, Subjective Happiness, and Patient Satisfaction , 2003, Spine.

[6]  Jennifer Ihm,et al.  The implications of information and communication technology use for the social well-being of older adults , 2015 .

[7]  L. Weng,et al.  Social participation reduces depressive symptoms among older adults: An 18-year longitudinal analysis in Taiwan , 2011, BMC public health.

[8]  Ronald W. Berkowsky,et al.  You Can Teach an Old Dog New Tricks , 2013, Journal of applied gerontology : the official journal of the Southern Gerontological Society.

[9]  Jeehoon Kim,et al.  Technology Access and Use, and Their Associations With Social Engagement Among Older Adults: Do Women and Men Differ? , 2016, The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences.

[10]  E. Vogelsang.  Older adult social participation and its relationship with health: Rural-urban differences. , 2016, Health & place.

[11]  Norazah Mohd Suki,et al.  Examining Factors to Retain Human Talent in Oil and Gas Industry , 2017 .

[12]  Anabel Quan-Haase,et al.  Interviews with digital seniors: ICT use in the context of everyday life , 2016 .

[13]  S. Aarts.  Social media and loneliness among community‐dwelling older adults , 2018, International journal of geriatric psychiatry.

[14]  P. Du,et al.  China's population ageing and active ageing , 2010 .

[15]  Rebecca L Utz,et al.  The effect of widowhood on older adults' social participation: an evaluation of activity, disengagement, and continuity theories. , 2002, The Gerontologist.

[16]  Ju-Hyun Kim,et al.  Factors determining the social participation of older adults: A comparison between Japan and Korea using EASS 2012 , 2018, PloS one.

[17]  D. Verté,et al.  Social participation among older adults in Belgium’s Flanders region: exploring the roles of both new and old media usage , 2018, Information, Communication & Society.

[18]  M. Wong,et al.  Explaining the continuum of social participation among older adults in Singapore: from 'closed doors' to active ageing in multi-ethnic community settings. , 2017, Journal of aging studies.

[19]  Sung-Il Cho,et al.  The relationship between social participation and self-rated health by sex and age: a cross-sectional survey. , 2008, International journal of nursing studies.

[20]  J. Groothoff,et al.  University of Groningen Determinants of social participation of visually impaired older adults , 2017 .

[21]  E. Tai,et al.  Television screen time, but not computer use and reading time, is associated with cardio-metabolic biomarkers in a multiethnic Asian population: a cross-sectional study , 2013, International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.

[22]  Rachel L. Franz,et al.  Can Digital Technology Enhance Social Connectedness Among Older Adults? A Feasibility Study , 2019, Journal of applied gerontology : the official journal of the Southern Gerontological Society.

[23]  L. Gauvin,et al.  Associations between perceived proximity to neighborhood resources, disability, and social participation among community-dwelling older adults: results from the VoisiNuAge study. , 2011, Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation.

[24]  J. Desrosiers,et al.  Accomplishment level and satisfaction with social participation of older adults: association with quality of life and best correlates , 2010, Quality of Life Research.

[25]  R. Lund,et al.  Cohabitation Status and Onset of Disability Among Older Danes , 2008, Journal of aging and health.

[26]  Thuong N. Hoang,et al.  Combatting social isolation and increasing social participation of older adults through the use of technology: A systematic review of existing evidence , 2018, Australasian journal on ageing.

[27]  D. Santos,et al.  Regular physical activity eliminates the harmful association of television watching with multimorbidity. A cross-sectional study from the European Social Survey. , 2018, Preventive medicine.

[28]  C. Kelly.  ‘Let’s do some jumping together’: Intergenerational participation in the use of remote technology to co-construct social relations over distance , 2015 .

[29]  J. Westbrook,et al.  Social participation as an indicator of successful aging: an overview of concepts and their associations with health. , 2017, Australian health review : a publication of the Australian Hospital Association.

[30]  K. Quinn,et al.  Cognitive Effects of Social Media Use: A Case of Older Adults , 2018, Social media + society.

[31]  Minsoo Jung,et al.  Associations between media use and health information-seeking behavior on vaccinations in South Korea , 2017, BMC Public Health.

[32]  N. Kurumatani,et al.  Association between the frequency and autonomy of social participation and self‐rated health , 2017, Geriatrics & gerontology international.

[33]  David J. Atkin,et al.  Newspaper Reading Supports Community Involvement , 2007 .

[34]  J. Desrosiers,et al.  Coping Strategies and Social Participation in Older Adults , 2008, Gerontology.

[35]  Swen Seebach,et al.  How elders evaluate apps: A contribution to the study of smartphones and to the analysis of the usefulness and accessibility of ICTS for older adults , 2015 .

[36]  Xiaoying Zheng,et al.  China: awakening giant developing solutions to population aging. , 2012, The Gerontologist.

[37]  C. Kay Weaver,et al.  GOODS NOT WANTED , 2010 .

[38]  William A Satariano,et al.  Aging, Place, and Technology , 2014, Journal of aging and health.

[39]  Karen R. Barnett,et al.  Information and Communication Practices: the Joint Concerns of Age and Gender in the Information Age , 2000 .

[40]  T. Ordonez,et al.  Elderly online: effects of a digital inclusion program in cognitive performance. , 2011, Archives of gerontology and geriatrics.

[41]  Weiwu Zhang,et al.  The Effects of Mass Media Use and Social Capital on Civic and Political Participation , 2006 .

[42]  Manuel Franco-Martín,et al.  ICT-based applications to improve social health and social participation in older adults with dementia. A systematic literature review , 2017, Aging & mental health.

[43]  K. Patel,et al.  TV Watching, but Not Physical Activity, Is Associated With Change in Kidney Function in Older Adults. , 2015, Journal of physical activity & health.

[44]  K. Blomberg,et al.  Perspectives of health and self‐care among older persons—To be implemented in an interactive information and communication technology‐platform , 2017, Journal of clinical nursing.

[45]  L. Baldassar,et al.  The significance of digital citizenship in the well-being of older migrants. , 2018, Public health.

[46]  C. Phillipson,et al.  Social participation among older adults living in medium-sized cities in Belgium: the role of neighbourhood perceptions. , 2014, Health promotion international.

[47]  Marc Hooghe,et al.  Watching Television and Civic Engagement , 2002 .

[48]  Dong-Hee Shin,et al.  A dialectic perspective on the interactive relationship between social media and civic participation: the moderating role of social capital , 2017 .

[49]  S. Ang.  Social participation and health over the adult life course: Does the association strengthen with age? , 2018, Social science & medicine.

[50]  Shelley Boulianne.  Social media use and participation: a meta-analysis of current research , 2015 .

[51]  Lucie Richard,et al.  Inventory and analysis of definitions of social participation found in the aging literature: proposed taxonomy of social activities. , 2010, Social science & medicine.

[52]  T. Arai,et al.  Association between a Change in Social Interaction and Dementia among Elderly People , 2016 .

[53]  Eszter Hargittai,et al.  A review of Internet use among older adults , 2018, New Media Soc..

[54]  M. Zhao,et al.  Demographic Change and Long‐Term Growth in China: Past Developments and the Future Challenge of Aging , 2018, Review of Development Economics.

[55]  Thomas N Friemel,et al.  The digital divide has grown old: Determinants of a digital divide among seniors , 2016, New Media Soc..

[56]  S. Ang.  Social Participation and Mortality Among Older Adults in Singapore: Does Ethnicity Explain Gender Differences? , 2016, The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences.

[57]  Fábio Rito,et al.  "You, me & TV" - Fighting social isolation of older adults with Facebook, TV and multimodality , 2017, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..