关键词: 老年人, 数字鸿沟, 数字失能过程模型, “情景-路径”框架

Abstract: Digital disability has become a critical issue in the governance of ageing societies. Research on digital disability is of great significance for revealing the digital divide among older adults and promoting their sharing of digital dividends. Drawing on theories such as physical disability and the digital divide, this study constructs a process model of digital disability based on a “situation-path” framework, along with a corresponding measurement index system. Using data from the 2020 China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey (CLASS), we empirically analyze the current situation and evolution mechanism of digital disability among older adults in China. The findings reveal two main aspects: On one hand, older adults in China generally exhibit a high level of digital disability, with strong heterogeneity within the disabled group. Specifically, cognitive impairment is the most prominent, digital creation ability is the most impaired, and social functional limitations are the most severe. On the other hand, digital disability follows a nonlinear three-stage evolutionary pathway, in which contextual factors (including subjective, objective, and environmental factors) exert either reinforcing or mitigating effects on the evolution process. Among these, subjective factors demonstrate the strongest moderating effect. In light of these findings, it is essential to strengthen contextual regulation and pathway-based interventions, implement targeted policies according to each developmental stage, and break the adverse coupling among subjective, objective, and environmental factors.

Keywords: Older Adults, Digital Divide, The Process Model of Digital Disability, “Situation-Path” Framework