EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

The Digital Divide and the Elderly: How Urban and Rural Realities Shape Well-Being and Social Inclusion in the Sardinian Context

Maria Grazia Diana, Maria Lidia Mascia (), Łukasz Tomczyk and Maria Pietronilla Penna
Additional contact information
Maria Grazia Diana: Department of Pedagogy, Psychology, Philosophy, University of Cagliari, 09123 Cagliari, Italy
Maria Lidia Mascia: Department of History, Humanities and Education, University of Sassari, 07100 Sassari, Italy
Łukasz Tomczyk: Institute of Education, Jagiellonian University, 31-007 Kraków, Poland
Maria Pietronilla Penna: Department of Pedagogy, Psychology, Philosophy, University of Cagliari, 09123 Cagliari, Italy

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 4, 1-22

Abstract: The Digital Grey Divide (DGD) is a phenomenon that refers to the digital inequality existing among the elderly in using digital tools. DGD could generate social exclusion and hinder elderly well-being because today many aspects of life are online. The objective of the research is to compare the urban and rural group to see if a digital divide is present and whether psychological and cognitive well-being can be predictors of usage. The research involved 100 elderly people (belonging to two different areas: one rural and one urban) aged 65 to 90 (M = 72.3; SD = 6.4) with intact cognitive functioning investigated by the MMSE test. A socio-anagraphic module to investigate digital use (DU), a questionnaire on cognitive reserve (CRIq), and a questionnaire investigating well-being (Ben-SSC) were administered. Results showed that the two groups differ in terms of access and use of digital tools (F = 28.34, p < 0.001), with the urban group reporting higher levels of access and use. Moreover, in the urban group, psychological well-being has an inverse relationship with digital, while in the rural group, the relationship between cognitive well-being and use is direct. Therefore, the study aims to highlight how even in developed countries there can be a digital divide (DD) given the risks of exclusion, particularly for the elderly population. For all these reasons, it is necessary to pursue interventions to achieve a higher level of digitalization and sustainable development among the population. Given the importance of this phenomenon, it is necessary to address the issue of DD in various spheres of life: political, social, economic and care.

Keywords: Digital Grey Divide; well-being; cognitive reserve; digital exclusion; predictors of digital usage; sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/4/1718/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/4/1718/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:4:p:1718-:d:1594327

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-22
Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:4:p:1718-:d:1594327