Publications

Not All Family Neglect Is Equal: How Neglect by Adult Children Versus Spouses Relates to Compulsive Smartphone Use Among Older Adults in China

Yu Jia, Jiashen Huang^#, Wenjing Pan (^# corresponding author)

Computers in Human Behavior (CHB)

Older adults' growing reliance on digital technology has become an important social and public health concern, yet the relational antecedents of this behavior within families remain insufficiently understood. Drawing on compensatory internet use theory and the convoy model of social relations, this study examines whether emotional neglect by adult children versus spouses relates to compulsive smartphone use through perceived family support and loneliness. Using survey data from 1,208 older adults aged 60 and older in mainland China, we evaluated the structural model using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The results indicated divergent associations across the two family sources. Adult-child neglect was positively associated with compulsive smartphone use through perceived family support, through loneliness, and through a sequential path from lower family support to higher loneliness. By contrast, spousal neglect was positively associated with compulsive smartphone use through loneliness, whereas its indirect path through perceived family support was not statistically significant. These findings deepen compensatory internet use theory by indicating that relational strains from adult children and spouses correspond to distinct psychological pathways, highlighting the relevance of distinguishing relationship sources in later-life family contexts.

Institutional Trust and the Domestic AI Advantage: Evidence from DeepSeek and ChatGPT Users in China

Jiashen Huang, Yu Jia, Xu Pan

arXiv: 2606.01228

Public trust in generative artificial intelligence has become increasingly differentiated in China with the rise of domestic large language models. While existing research has largely focused on technical performance and individual factors, less attention has been paid to the broader institutional contexts that shape AI trust. Drawing on Cognitive-Affective Trust Theory, we propose an Institutional Prism framework to demonstrate how institutional trust shapes user trust in domestic (DeepSeek) and global (ChatGPT) large language models. Based on a within-subject survey of 405 Chinese users, the findings show that higher institutional trust is associated with stronger affective trust in domestic AI models and more favorable cognitive evaluations. This domestic advantage weakens among users with lower institutional trust. These findings identify institutional trust as a critical mechanism in AI-mediated communication. By linking micro-level psychological judgments with macro-level governance, this study contributes a new perspective on human-machine communication in contemporary China.

一句话玩转AI视频
Master AI Video in One Sentence

Jiashen Huang, Tsinghua Qingxin Research Group

武汉大学出版社
Wuhan University Press

How do Brands Communicate with Overseas Audiences? The Matching Effect between Narrative Style and Narrative Person

Yu Jia, Jinyan Yu, Jiashen Huang, Ying You

2024 National Communication Association 110th Annual Convention (NCA)

The international communication of brand has become an important issue in international trade. In this context, this paper chooses two important communication variables, brand narrative style and narrative person, to discuss the matching effect between brand narrative style (warmth vs. ability) and narrative person (first-person vs. third-person) and its impact on overseas audiences. In this paper, the main effect research based on big data crawling, laboratory experiment research on mediating effect and cross-cultural experimental research on regulating effect are carried out respectively. It is found that the interaction between brand narrative style and narrative person has a significant impact on consumer brand attitude. As for the warm brand narrative, compared with the third-person, the first-person narrative is helpful to improve consumers' brand attitude; For competency-based brand narrative, compared with the first-person, the third-person narrative is helpful to improve consumers' brand attitude. Information processing fluency has a mediating effect on the process. The interactive impact of brand narrative style and narrative person on overseas consumers' brand attitudes is moderated by the cultural distance between the home country and the host country. This matching effect is more significant for overseas consumers with close cultural distance, while it is less significant for overseas consumers with far cultural distance.

Research on the Matching Effect of Social Media Advertising Appeal and Narrative Person: Evidence from China

Yu Jia, Jinyan Yu, Tianyuan Liu, Jiashen Huang, Wenlong Mu, Fengfeng Deng

Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research (JTAER)

The burgeoning landscape of social media advertising also faces a myriad of challenges. This study aims to explore the interactive effect of advertising appeal (abstract vs. concrete) and narrative person (first-person vs. third-person) on consumer attitudes towards social media advertising. Based on the construal level theory, this study uses secondary data and two experiments to investigate the interactive effect between advertising appeal and narrative person in social media advertising and the moderated mediating role of information processing fluency. The result reveals that a harmonious match between advertising appeal and narrative person enhances consumer fluency in processing advertising information, thereby improving consumer attitudes towards advertising. Specifically, for advertisements with concrete appeal, first-person narratives are more conducive to enhancing consumer attitudes towards advertising. Conversely, for advertisements with abstract appeal, third-person narratives are more advantageous. This study provides theoretical insights into social media advertising narration, with practical implications for marketers to advance social media advertising design.

数字时代的孤独：伴侣与子女忽视如何影响老年人数字设备沉迷?
Loneliness in the Digital Age: How Partner and Child Neglect Affects Digital Device Addiction in Older Adults?

Yu Jia, Jiashen Huang, Xingzheng Gu, Tianyuan Liu

2024年中国新闻史学会健康传播委员会年会
2024 Annual Meeting of the Health Communication Professional Committee of the Chinese Society for the History of Journalism

The excessive reliance on and addiction to digital technology among older adults is gradually evolving into a global social and public health challenge. Based on social support theory, this study delves into the family factors inducing compulsive digital device use among older adults. Through national quota sampling, survey data from 1497 older adults aged 60 and above in mainland China were ultimately collected, and the questionnaire data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The research results indicate that children's neglect of older adults significantly promotes compulsive digital device use among older adults, while spousal neglect has no direct impact on this behavior. Furthermore, family support and loneliness play independent mediating and sequential mediating roles between children's neglect and compulsive digital device use among older adults. Spousal neglect can only affect compulsive digital device use among older adults by increasing their loneliness. This study reveals the different impacts of children's neglect and spousal neglect on the mental health and digital usage habits of older adults, providing theoretical support and empirical evidence for developing stratified and categorized intervention measures.