Abstract
BACKGROUND: In the digital and intelligent era, a considerable number of older adults in China still have a low level of digital inclusion. Although existing literature has explored the relationship between the use of the internet and depression among older adults to some extent, it mainly focused on surface aspects rather than delving into the underlying mechanism of action among digital inclusion, depression, and noncognitive abilities, which remains unclear. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to explore the mediating role of noncognitive abilities between digital inclusion and depression among older adults in China, as well as the parallel mediating roles of each dimension of the Big Five personality traits in the relationship between them. METHODS: We extracted cross-sectional data from a nationally representative survey, namely the China Family Panel Studies, which centered on older adults (aged 60 years or older). The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D 8), which consists of 8 items, was used to determine the presence of depression. The 15-item short version of the Big Five Personality Scale was used to measure the noncognitive abilities of older adults. Model 4 of the PROCESS macro (Andrew F. Hayes) program was applied to test, respectively, the mediating role of noncognitive abilities between digital inclusion and depression status, as well as the parallel mediating roles of each dimension of the Big Five personality traits in the relationship between them. RESULTS: This study found that digital inclusion was negatively related to depression in older adults (β=-.054, t(6545)=-4.804; P<.01). After adding noncognitive abilities as a mediating variable, depression was found to be negatively related to digital inclusion (β=-.022, t(6544)=-1.972; P<.05). Noncognitive abilities play a significant mediating role in the relationship between the level of digital inclusion and depression, and their effect accounts for 59.44% of the total effect. In the parallel mediation model, conscientiousness, extraversion, openness, and emotional stability all partially mediated the association between digital inclusion and depression. The parallel mediation effects of conscientiousness (β=-.0045, 95% CI -0.0068 to -0.0024; P<.05), extraversion (β=-.0067, 95% CI -0.0096 to -0.0043; P<.05), openness (β=.0085, 95% CI 0.0042 to 0.0128; P<.05), and emotional stability (β=-.0073, 95% CI -0.0131 to -0.0017; P<.05) of noncognitive abilities in the relationship between digital inclusion and depression were significant, accounting for 8.33%, 12.41%, -15.74%, and 13.52% of the total effect, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate that digital inclusion is a negative predictor of depression among older adults, and noncognitive abilities play a partial mediating role between digital inclusion and depression status. Moreover, conscientiousness, extraversion, openness, and emotional stability of the Big Five personality traits have parallel mediating effects between digital inclusion and depression status.