On-Line Communities, Real Life Social Networks and Mental Well-Being in Senior Citizens: Results from a Two-Wave Survey in Three European Countries

It is widely assumed that going on-line and joining on-line communities will boost well-being and quality of life in senior citizens. However, the quantitative empirical evidence on this issue is scarce. Many studies either utilize a qualitative design or suffer from methodological shortcomings (e.g., cross-sectional design, small sample sizes).

This paper reports results from a two-wave survey which has been conducted as part of the Third Age Online-Project (TAO) in the Netherlands, in Germany and in Switzerland. The research aimed at analyzing the psychosocial consequences of going on-line and of joining social media. In the first wave of the survey, more than 3,000 participants could be recruited, and were then categorized as either ‘onliners’ or as ‘offliners’. The questionnaire contained sociodemographic variables, real life social inclusion variables and Internet usage variables. Mental well-being was assessed using the ‘Mental Health Index -5’ (MHI-5). Logistic regression models were used to analyze associations with Internet usage and with social media usage. After one year, the same participants were again approached to provide data for the second wave of the data collection.  670 on-liners provided sufficient data that could be matched with the wave one survey. Logistic regression models were again utilized to find out which variables from wave one would serve as predictors of wave two outcome indicators (mental well-being, real life social inclusion).

The results of the wave one data revealed that senior on-liners were very well socially included and had a high level of mental well-being.  However, in the longitudinal analyses, Internet and social media related variables did not predict mental well-being and social networks. It was concluded that going on-line and joining on-line communities may, at best, help to maintain quality of life and social networks rather than enhancing seniors’ psychosocial conditions.