Internet addiction among the elderly is a novel issue in many countries. However, extant research about excessive use of the Internet is focusing on adolescents and younger adults. There are few studies to explore the topic of the elderly's Internet addiction. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between real-life social support and Internet addiction among older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article adopted a self-reported questionnaire via internet links to collect data. A total of 303 valid samples about Internet addiction for the elderly were obtained in China. The results suggested that real-life social support is significantly and negatively related to Internet addiction among the aged. Moreover, the findings revealed that real-life social support could mitigate Internet addiction by increasing the levels of hopefulness and decreasing the feeling of loneliness. We expect that this study can enrich the understanding of the problematic Internet usage within older populations. Finally, the contributions, practical significance, and limitations of this study were discussed.

Existing research has found that workplace negative gossip exerts a negative impact on employees and organizations. However, there is a lack of study on the spillover effect of workplace negative gossip on employees’ families. This paper aimed to address this gap in prior literature. Based on resource conservation theory, we chose married employees who perceived or suffered from workplace negative gossip as the subjects and analyzed the effect of workplace negative gossip on their work–family conflict. We adopted a self-reported questionnaire to assess employees’ perception or experience of workplace negative gossip, psychological distress, level of neuroticism, and work–family conflicts. A total of 245 valid employee questionnaires were obtained from two-wave data collection in China. The results of the empirical analysis indicated that workplace negative gossip perceived or suffered by employees has a positive impact on their work–family conflicts, and psychological distress plays a mediating role in the relationship between perceived or suffered workplace negative gossip and employees’ work–family conflict. Furthermore, we found that employees’ level of neuroticism moderates the positive effect of workplace negative gossip and work–family conflict, and it also moderates the mediating effect of workplace negative gossip on employees’ work–family conflict by psychological distress. The conclusion of this paper supported our previous hypotheses. Finally, according to the earlier findings, we discussed the theoretical contributions, practical significance, and limitations of the study and provided some practical suggestions for managers.

Although the positive relationship between religion and happiness has aroused heated debate, empirical studies on this are limited in the Chinese cultural context. Furthermore, there is a lack of heterogeneity analysis concerning this influence. This paper aims to address this gap in the existing literature. Using the Chinese General Social Survey data from 2015 for empirical analysis, the results show that people with religious beliefs have an increased probability of feeling very happy. This positive association does not exist in urban and eastern groups, but it still holds up in other remaining sub-samples (i.e., rural group). This study further finds that the effect of religiosity on happiness varies by different religious identification. Muslims are more likely to feel very happy compared with non-Muslims, but people of the Christian faith do not rate themselves higher on the happiness scale than non-Christians. Moreover, the results also reveal that religious involvement is significantly and positively related to happiness. Specifically, vulnerable groups are more likely to perceive themselves to be happier from continuous religious participation, whereas advantaged groups do not. This is because vulnerable groups generally have a lack of social security, and religious practices provide them with social support among their members. They therefore can enjoy larger and denser social networks. These are vital mechanisms for them to cope with stress and risk.

Introduction: Problematic internet use among the elderly is an emerging area as previous studies focused more among the young people. Only a few studies focused on problematic internet use at the level of individual characteristics of older adults or on mitigating factors at the level of the older adult's family, ignoring family-level disruptive factors. Objective: The purpose of study is to investigate the relationship between conflict with children and problematic internet use among the elderly, as well as the mediating mechanisms and boundary conditions of the relationship. Methods: The valid sample of study composed of 428 older adults from 39 different villages and communities in central China. Data analyses were conducted by SPSS, MPLUS, and SmartPLS software. To test our hypotheses, we implement several quantitative methods, including confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), correlations analysis, and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. Also, we employed partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) for robustness testing. Results: The results indicated that conflict with children was positively associated with problematic internet use of old people; psychological depression mediated the relationship between conflict with children and old adults’ problematic internet use; sociability moderated the effect of conflict with children on psychological depression; and living situation moderated the effect of psychological depression on problematic internet use among the elderly. Conclusion: The current research improved the understanding of the mechanisms that produce problematic internet use among the elderly and helped prevent or reduce problematic internet use in older adults in terms of family support systems and individual ability characteristics.

Purpose: This study aimed to revise the Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS-R) among older adults in China. Method: 1,107 participants were recruited through an online survey. The factorial structure, reliability, and validity of the CIAS-R were tested. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was employed to distinguish individuals’ Internet addiction membership. Results: The first-order five-factor model was demonstrated to best explain the underlying structure of the CIAS-R among the elderly in China. Time spent online, sense of loneliness, and depression provided evidence for the criterion validity of the CIAS-R. The magnitude of the correlation coefficients indicated Internet addiction may lead to psychological problems. LPA analysis showed the elderly could be clustered into four types based on their Internet addiction severity. Conclusion: The CIAS-R is a reliable and valid measure of Internet addiction among the elderly. This study offers a feasible way to intervene in the addicted aged for social workers and clinicians.