Well-Being Predicts Digital Literacy Skills in Rural Older Adults

This study examined the relationship that personal, economic, and social-relational factors have with the development of digital literacy skills among rural older adults who have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on ecological theories proposed by Kim and Moen (well-being) and Williamson (information behavior) and using modified questions from existing, validated surveys of the target population (Health and Retirement Survey, Jones-Jang et al. study of digital literacy), this study surveyed older adults in rural, western Kansas. The findings of this study indicate strong interrelationships between personal, economic, and social-relational factors and the three digital literacy indicators (information literacy scores, trust in interpersonal information sources, and trust in mass media information sources) among rural, independently living older Kansans. As the rural, independent-living, older adult population is rarely studied in any discipline, let alone library and information science, this study also provides a unique contribution to the scholarly corpus of the field and may inform future research to examine the lives and information needs of rural older adults.