Digital literacy, work participation, and active aging: evidence on older adults' employment and well-being in China.

Higher levels of digital literacy are significantly associated with a greater likelihood of employment participation among older adults.

• Data drawn from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), a nationally representative dataset.
• The study examined older adults in the context of China's aging society from a public health and life-course perspective.
• The positive association between digital literacy and employment was statistically significant.

Digital literacy components exhibit substantial heterogeneity in their effects on older adult employment, with digital awareness and digital application skills showing positive effects while digital access alone does not translate into meaningful labor market benefits.

• A multidimensional analysis was conducted decomposing digital literacy into components including digital awareness, digital application skills, and digital access.
• Digital awareness and digital application skills each exerted positive and distinct effects on employment outcomes.
• Digital access alone did not produce meaningful labor market benefits for older adults.

Digital application skills exhibit the largest marginal effect on older adults' employment among all digital literacy components.

• This finding underscores the importance of advanced, functional digital literacy rather than basic connectivity.
• The differential effect of digital application skills compared to other components was identified through multidimensional component analysis.
• This suggests that the quality and functionality of digital skill use matters more than mere access or awareness.

Digital literacy shapes older adults' employment outcomes through three interrelated mechanisms: improving attitudes toward aging, strengthening social capital, and alleviating the burden of grandchild care.

• Mechanism analysis identified these three pathways through which digital literacy influences employment.
• The pathways involve psychological well-being (aging attitudes), social participation (social capital), and family responsibilities (grandchild care).
• These mechanisms indicate that digital literacy reorganizes opportunity structures for work participation in later life.

Significant heterogeneity in the relationship between digital literacy and employment was observed across digital literacy types, gender, educational attainment, and urban-rural contexts.

• Subgroup analyses revealed differential effects by gender, educational attainment, and urban versus rural residence.
• Heterogeneity was also found across different types of digital literacy.
• These findings suggest that the employment benefits of digital literacy are not uniformly distributed across the older adult population.