A technostress-based conceptual framework of digital anxiety for older adults

To explore the actual state of digital anxiety among older adults, this study first analyzed their state when facing digital problems based on technostress theory, and then identified four dimensions of digital anxiety, encompassing digital complexity anxiety, digital risk anxiety, digital exclusion anxiety, and digital identity threat. A self-developed questionnaire was administered to 76 older adults and the proposed four-dimensional structure was examined by confirmatory factor analysis. The findings show that digital complexity and digital risk anxieties are the most prominent overall, while social exclusion and identity-related anxieties vary more strongly across demographic contexts.