Exploring middle-aged and older adults’ sources of Internet self-efficacy: A case study

Highlights

• Sharable or admirable vicarious experience is a source of Internet self-efficacy.

• Persuasion from influential social networks is essential in Internet self-efficacy.

• Older adults’ primary source may be emotional and physiological states.

• Proactive personality may be another source that has been previously overlooked.

• There may be reciprocal relationships among the five sources we proposed.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine sources underlying middle aged and older adults’ Internet self-efficacy. Interview data were collected from a total of 24 middle aged and older adults to categorize and synthesize their sources of Internet self-efficacy. It was found that there are five sources, (1) successful performance accomplishments or experience using the Internet to fulfill basic and living needs, (2) vicarious admirable modeling by children, friends, and neighbors, (3) verbal or social persuasion by influential friends and family, (4) fear, bad memory, slow reactions, or a joyful state, and (5) a proactive personality. In addition, it was found that in addition to performance accomplishments, psychological and physiological states are another primary source of Internet self-efficacy for middle-aged and older adults. Our findings advance the Internet self-efficacy literature as they extend what is known about the previous four sources, and indicate that proactive personality may be another important source that has been previously overlooked. The five sources are likely to be related to each other, emphasizing dynamic and reciprocal relationships between performance accomplishments and emotional and physiological states, emotional state and proactive personality, as well as social persuasion and performance accomplishments.

Introduction

People have increasingly more chances to use the Internet for information searching and sharing to fulfill their job requirements nowadays, and research has shown that Internet self-efficacy is related to not only learning performance in Internet-based instruction, but also to preferences and strategies (Hill and Hannafin, 1997, Joo et al., 2000, Liang and Tsai, 2008, Tsai and Tsai, 2003). Researchers conducting studies related to Internet self-efficacy have defined it as the self-perceived confidence and expectation or the belief in one’s capabilities of performing various tasks on the Internet (Eastin and LaRose, 2000, Liang and Tsai, 2008, Tsai, 2012). The above-mentioned studies follow the fundamental definition of self-efficacy, which refers to an individual’s judgments of his/her capabilities to perform specified tasks successfully at the intended level (Bandura, 1977).

Research in practice has found that Internet self-efficacy is positively related to performance in web-based instruction and usage intention in older adults’ learning of ICT (e.g., Joo et al., 2000, Lam and Lee, 2007). Furthermore, the influence of Internet self-efficacy on other factors in related fields of study has been pointed out. For instance, Internet self-efficacy is found to be one of many factors that enhance or inhibit students’ motivation or attitude for web-based continuing learning (Liang and Wu, 2010, Liang et al., 2011). Moreover, Hill and Hannafin (1997) have shown that perceived self-efficacy in terms of using computer technologies in general and to search for information using electronic information systems in particular influences the strategies utilized in web-based learning. Further, research has found that Internet self-efficacy could foster better information searching strategies and learning outcomes in Internet-based environments (Tsai & Tsai, 2003) and identified it as a strong and positive effects on computer competence from an IT student perspective (Shih, 2006). Though past research has identified the important role of Internet self-efficacy and investigated its impact, relatively few studies have been conducted empirically from the theoretical perspectives of the initially proposed concept of self-efficacy specifically related to Internet usage (Tsai, Chuang, Liang, & Tsai, 2011).

The present study therefore aims at answering the following questions: What are the sources of Internet self-efficacy from middle-aged and older adults’ perspectives based upon the theoretical framework of the sources of self-efficacy hypothesized by Bandura, 1986, Bandura, 1997? What are the primary sources of Internet self-efficacy for middle-aged and older adults? This paper is organized as follow. The next section summarizes the state of knowledge about sources of Internet self-efficacy for middle-aged and older adults. The subsequent section discusses the methodology and data analysis. Assertions are shaped and presented in results and discussion next followed by two sections that discusses conclusions and implications consecutively for research and practice.