ABSTRACT
The past several decades have witnessed China’s urbanization. In keeping with the one-child policy, many Chinese parents have become empty nesters at a younger age when their only children leave home for further development. Drawing from uses and gratifications and self-determination theories, the current study utilized an online survey to investigate whether Chinese midlife empty-nest parents differ in their WeChat learning and gaming behaviors from those non-empty nesters. Results showed that midlife empty-nest parents were lonelier, played more WeChat mini-games, and engaged in fewer learning activities than non-empty nesters. Loneliness increased WeChat gaming while reducing motivation to learn which, in turn, drove learning activities on WeChat. A positive relationship between loneliness and WeChat learning existed only among highly proficient WeChat users.
