AccScience Publishing / IJPS / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/ijps.3119
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Internet use and cognitin among American middle-aged and older adults: The gendered moderating effect of age

Kun Wang1* Zainab Suntai2 Yanjun Dong3
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1 Department of Social Work, College of Arts and Sciences, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, Illinois, United States of America
2 The Children & Family Research Center, School of Social Work, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America
3 School of Social Welfare, College of Integrated Health Sciences, State University of New York, University at Albany, Albany, New York, United States of America
Submitted: 8 March 2024 | Accepted: 15 July 2024 | Published: 23 October 2024
© 2024 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

The popularity of Internet use brings more potential for healthy cognitive aging among older adults. Emerging studies have examined the age and gender differences in the link between older adults’ Internet use and cognition. However, few studies have investigated the gendered age difference regarding this association. The purpose of this study was to examine whether age would moderate the effect of Internet use on cognition among middle-aged and older adults and whether this relationship would be different between men and women. A total of 6,338 adults aged 50 or older were drawn on from the 2016 Wave of the Health and Retirement Study. Sequential linear regressions were conducted to examine the interactions between Internet use, age, and gender on cognition. The three-way interaction of Internet use, age, and gender was a significant predictor of cognition (β = 0.01, p < 0.05). Specifically, the positive effect of Internet use on cognition was higher among older women of older age than those of younger age, while the positive effect remained the same for older men of different ages. The Internet offers a valuable resource for engaging middle-aged and older adults in activities that not only provide social interaction but also stimulate cognitive processes. The study suggests that the aging process does not necessarily inhibit the cognitive benefits that middle-aged and older adults can gain from using the Internet. Findings from this study indicated that future Internet/technology training to increase cognition among middle-aged and older adults should be age- and gender-tailored.

Keywords
Internet use
Cognition
Gender
Age
Older adults
Middle-aged adults
United States
Funding
The Health and Retirement Study (HRS) was funded by the National Institute on Aging (grant number NIA U01AG009740) and was conducted by the University of Michigan.
Conflict of interest
Kun Wang is the Editorial Board Member of the journal but did not in any way involve in the editorial and peer-review process conducted for this paper, directly or indirectly. Other authors declare no conflicts of interest.
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