Chinese older adults' personal–family life balance and its associations with social networks: The moderating role of internet use

Abstract This study used nationally representative data from the China Longitudinal Ageing Social Survey 2018 to examine how activity patterns in the personal and family life domains were associated with social networks among Chinese older adults and whether internet use changed these relationships. Using latent class analysis, we identified four activity patterns, including Personal‐centered Activity class (14.37%), Low Activity class (58.06%), Family‐centered Activity class (19.24%), and Balanced Activity class (8.33%). Multivariate analyses revealed that the Personal‐centered Activity and Low Activity classes were associated with looser family ties compared with the Family‐centered Activity class, whereas the Balanced Activity class was associated with closer friendship ties. Internet usage was significantly associated with stronger family and friendship ties in the Low Activity group. Intervention programs to address the digital divide and engage older adults with limited offline social engagement in online communications may have positive effects on maintaining or expanding their social networks.