ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Personality and Social Psychology
The Impact of Digital Health Literacy on Marriage-and-Childbearing Anxiety among Chinese Youth of Reproductive Age
Provisionally accepted
- Xinyang Normal University, Xinyang, China
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Abstract: In the digital era, information on marriage and childbearing is predominantly accessed online. Yet the coexistence of information overload and misinformation may amplify anxiety among reproductive-age youth. To explore the impact and mechanism of digital health literacy (DHL) on marriage-and-childbearing anxiety (MCA) among young adults of reproductive age, and to provide empirical evidence for alleviating MCA, this study conducted an empirical analysis based on 748 survey samples. Multiple econometric methods including ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, ordered Probit model, instrumental variable (2SLS) method and mediating effect test are adopted to ensure the reliability of research results. The core findings are as follows: First, DHL has a significant negative inhibitory effect on MCA among young adults of reproductive age, and this effect remains stable after robustness tests and endogeneity correction. Second, information cognition, risk perception and social support serve as three key mediating pathways through which DHL affects MCA, among which risk perception plays the most prominent mediating role. Third, the inhibitory effect of DHL on MCA exhibits significant group heterogeneity, which varies with gender, household registration type, income level, city tier and different dimensions of DHL. This study elucidates the underlying mechanisms through which DHL influences MCA, and provides targeted theoretical and empirical support for alleviating MCA among young adults of reproductive age in the digital era.
Keywords: digital health literacy, marriage-and-childbearing anxiety, Information cognition, Risk Perception, reproductive-age youth
Received: 07 Aug 2025; Accepted: 10 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Li and Yang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Zihan Yang, zihan@xynu.edu.cn
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