How does family support work when older adults obtain information from mobile internet?
Information Technology & People
ISSN: 0959-3845
Article publication date: 20 February 2019
Issue publication date: 19 November 2019
Abstract
Purpose
More and more older adults begin to use the mobile internet to obtain information. However, the quality of information obtained through mobile internet by older adults is hard to be guaranteed. The purpose of this paper is to study the role of family support when older adults obtain information from mobile internet.
Design/methodology/approach
This study conducted a survey of 263 older adults who owned mobile internet devices such as smartphones or tablet PCs. The theory hypotheses are tested using partial least squares techniques.
Findings
For older adults, family support is the influencing factor of mobile internet literacy improvement. Family emotional support has stronger impacts on the improvement both of mobile internet skill literacy and of mobile internet information literacy than family cognitive support has. Furthermore, the improvement of both mobile internet skill literacy and of mobile internet information literacy hs positive impacts on the quality improvement of obtained information by older adults.
Practical implications
This paper gives advice on how family members can support older adults during their obtaining information from mobile internet to improve their mobile internet literacy and quality of obtained information.
Originality/value
This study examines the factors that influence mobile internet literacy and quality of obtained information among older adults from the perspective of family support in the Chinese mobile internet context. The research results enrich the internet literacy theory and the information quality theory.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This work was partially supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos 71771210 and 71502003), and a grant from the Natural Science Foundation of Beijing Municipality (No. 9182008). The authors are grateful to the participants who responded to the survey. The authors would also like to thank the two anonymous referees for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.
Citation
Xiong, J. and Zuo, M. (2019), "How does family support work when older adults obtain information from mobile internet?", Information Technology & People, Vol. 32 No. 6, pp. 1496-1516. https://doi.org/10.1108/ITP-02-2018-0060
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited