Purpose in life mitigates digital disconnection in older adults

Yichen Wang and Anthony D Ong

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2026, vol. 81, issue 1, gbaf227.

Abstract: ObjectivesDigital engagement is increasingly recognized as a social determinant of health that influences well-being in aging populations. However, disparities in digital access and engagement contribute to social isolation, particularly among older adults who may experience technological barriers. While digital interactions have the potential to mitigate loneliness, their effectiveness varies widely, indicating systematic differences in how engagement corresponds to loneliness across individuals. Here, we introduce the concept of digital disconnection—the mismatch between the frequency of digital social contact and experienced loneliness—and examine whether purpose in life (PIL) mitigates this phenomenon in later life.MethodsUsing cross-sectional surveys and daily diary data from two independent cohorts in the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS III: N = 2,864; MIDUS Refresher: N = 2,522) study, we quantified digital disconnection as individual deviations in loneliness from predicted levels based on patterns of digital contact.ResultsPurpose in life was inversely associated with digital disconnection in both surveys (B = −0.51 and B = −0.60, p

Keywords: Social determinants of health; Micro-longitudinal assessments; Social isolation; Technology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbaf227 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:oup:geronb:v:81:y:2026:i:1:p:gbaf227.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B is currently edited by Psychological Sciences - S. Duke Han, PhD and Social Sciences - Jessica A Kelley, PhD, FGSA

More articles in The Journals of Gerontology: Series B from The Gerontological Society of America Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().