IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0272611.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The role of internet use in the relationship between occupational status and depression

Author

Listed:
  • Yujie Zhang

Abstract

Background: The emerging information and communications technology (ICT) and society 5.0 have integrated digital innovation and imaginative creativity to solve social problems and create social value in an aging society. Especially in China, the penetration rate of internet use has become more prominent. Nevertheless, the role of internet use in the relationship between occupational status and depression remains unknown. The purpose of this study was to estimate how internet use moderates the relationship between occupational status and depression in a sample of older adults in China. Methods: A cross-sectional design was used to assess the relationship between occupational status, internet use and depression. This study employed data from the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) conducted in 2017. The full sample size of this study is 2,403. OLS regression was adopted to explore the correlation between occupational status and depression and the moderating role of internet use. Meanwhile, a heterogeneity analysis based on residence registration was implemented to explore the difference between rural and urban sample groups. Results: The findings suggested that higher occupational status was related to lower depression level. By playing an inhibitory moderating role between the association of occupational status and depression, internet use and occupational status formed a substituting effect. Meanwhile, the above moderating effect was only significant in urban group and insignificant in rural group. Besides, being male and having higher social class were significantly and negatively correlated with depression. Conclusion: This study began with the theory of social stratification and social mobility, added the theory of social capital, constructed an analytical framework of regulatory effect, put forward two basic assumptions, selected measurement indicators taking into account Chinese cultural factors, and conducted empirical tests using authoritative statistical software and national representative data, providing a new theoretical contribution to our understanding of the impact of occupational status and depression in developing countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Yujie Zhang, 2022. "The role of internet use in the relationship between occupational status and depression," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(10), pages 1-16, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0272611
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0272611
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0272611
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0272611&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0272611?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kontogiannis, Nikolaos & Litina, Anastasia & Varvarigos, Dimitrios, 2019. "Occupation-induced status, social norms, and economic growth," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 348-360.
    2. Qian Liu & Haimin Pan & Yuanyuan Wu, 2020. "Migration Status, Internet Use, and Social Participation among Middle-Aged and Older Adults in China: Consequences for Depression," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-13, August.
    3. Singh-Manoux, Archana & Adler, Nancy E. & Marmot, Michael G., 2003. "Subjective social status: its determinants and its association with measures of ill-health in the Whitehall II study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(6), pages 1321-1333, March.
    4. Laurence Lessard-Phillips & Yaojun Li, 2017. "Social Stratification of Education by Ethnic Minority Groups over Generations in the UK," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(1), pages 45-54.
    5. Laurence Lessard-Phillips & Yaojun Li, 2017. "Social Stratification of Education by Ethnic Minority Groups over Generations in the UK," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(1), pages 45-54.
    6. Song, Lijun, 2015. "Does who you know in the positional hierarchy protect or hurt? Social capital, comparative reference group, and depression in two societies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 136, pages 117-127.
    7. Yan, Guoyao & Peng, Yanling & Hao, Yu & Irfan, Muhammad & Wu, Haitao, 2021. "Household head's educational level and household education expenditure in China: The mediating effect of social class identification," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    8. Nishimura, Junko, 2011. "Socioeconomic status and depression across Japan, Korea, and China: Exploring the impact of labor market structures," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(4), pages 604-614, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jawiria Naseem, 2019. ""I Didn’t Have the Luxury to Wait": Understanding the University-to-Work Transition among Second-Generations in Britain," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(3), pages 270-281.
    2. Yaojun Li & Anthony Heath, 2017. "The Socio-Economic Integration of Ethnic Minorities," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(1), pages 1-4.
    3. Yi, Jisu & Lee, Youseok & Suh, Jungmin & Kim, Sang-Hoon, 2022. "Psychological determinants of non-attendees’ resistance toward performing arts," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 690-699.
    4. Chunping Han, 2014. "Health Implications of Socioeconomic Characteristics, Subjective Social Status, and Perceptions of Inequality: An Empirical Study of China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 119(2), pages 495-514, November.
    5. Landefeld, John C. & Burmaster, Katharine B. & Rehkopf, David H. & Syme, S. Leonard & Lahiff, Maureen & Adler-Milstein, Sarah & Fernald, Lia C.H., 2014. "The association between a living wage and subjective social status and self-rated health: A quasi-experimental study in the Dominican Republic," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 91-97.
    6. Gugushvili, Alexi & Zelinska, Olga & Präg, Patrick & Bulczak, Grzegorz, 2022. "Does perceived social mobility affect health? Evidence from a fixed effects approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).
    7. Nobles, Jenna & Weintraub, Miranda Ritterman & Adler, Nancy E., 2013. "Subjective socioeconomic status and health: Relationships reconsidered," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 58-66.
    8. Eunkyung Lee & Yeosun Yoon, 2022. "Heading Up or Stuck Down Here? The Effect of Perceived Economic Mobility on Subjective Social Status and Brand Identification," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(3), pages 21582440221, September.
    9. Liu, Guoqing & Yang, Yiying & Wang, Yangqian & Zhao, Shouying & Cheng, Gang, 2023. "The trajectory of subjective social status and its influencing factors in the transition period of freshmen in senior high school," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    10. Bradshaw, Matt & Ellison, Christopher G., 2010. "Financial hardship and psychological distress: Exploring the buffering effects of religion," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 196-204, July.
    11. Miranda L. Ritterman & S. Leonard Syme, 2009. "The importance of community development for health and well-being," Community Development Innovation Review, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue 3, pages 001-013.
    12. Jerneja Farkas & Majda Pahor & Lijana Zaletel-Kragelj, 2011. "Self-rated health in different social classes of Slovenian adult population: nationwide cross-sectional study," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 56(1), pages 45-54, February.
    13. Dan Ma & Hao Yuan, 2021. "Neighborhood Environment, Internet Use and Mental Distress among Older Adults: The Case of Shanghai, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-12, March.
    14. Yang Xiao & Yanjie Bian & Lei Zhang, 2020. "Mental Health of Chinese Online Networkers under COVID-19: A Sociological Analysis of Survey Data," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(23), pages 1-17, November.
    15. Adena, Maja & Myck, Michal, 2013. "Poverty and Transitions in Health," IZA Discussion Papers 7532, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Macleod, John & Davey Smith, George & Metcalfe, Chris & Hart, Carole, 2005. "Is subjective social status a more important determinant of health than objective social status? Evidence from a prospective observational study of Scottish men," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(9), pages 1916-1929, November.
    17. Martin Korndörfer & Boris Egloff & Stefan C. Schmukle, 2015. "A Large Scale Test of the Effect of Social Class on Prosocial Behavior," Working Papers 1601, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
    18. Adler, Nancy & Singh-Manoux, Archana & Schwartz, Joseph & Stewart, Judith & Matthews, Karen & Marmot, Michael G., 2008. "Social status and health: A comparison of British civil servants in Whitehall-II with European- and African-Americans in CARDIA," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(5), pages 1034-1045, March.
    19. Jason R. D. Rarick & Carly Tubbs Dolan & Wen‐Jui Han & Jun Wen, 2018. "Relations Between Socioeconomic Status, Subjective Social Status, and Health in Shanghai, China," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 99(1), pages 390-405, March.
    20. Ilias‐Ioannis Kyriopoulos & Dimitris Zavras & Antonis Charonis & Kostas Athanasakis & Elpida Pavi & John Kyriopoulos, 2016. "Indebtedness, Socioeconomic Status, and Self‐Rated Health: Empirical Evidence From Greece," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 8(4), pages 387-397, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0272611. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.