Digital literacy's impact on digital village participation in rural left-behind women through serial mediation of political trust and self-efficacy.

Rural left-behind women, as important potential participants in Digital Village Development, face multiple challenges including limited educational resources, weak digital skills, constrained economic conditions, and traditional socio-cultural barriers. These factors severely restrict the improvement of their digital literacy and their effective participation in digital village initiatives. Drawing upon the Socio-Technical Systems (STS) theory to understand the interplay between technology and social systems, and based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) theory to explore individual psychological processes, this study focuses on two key psychological variables-political trust and self-efficacy-to systematically explore how digital literacy influences the digital village participation of rural left-behind women through these intrinsic psychological mechanisms. The study aims to address the theoretical gaps in digital empowerment for marginalized groups and to provide solid theoretical and empirical support for promoting digital inclusion and targeted digital empowerment policies. This study utilizes field survey data from a major project funded by the National Social Science Fund of China. The sample was selected using a stratified random sampling method from several townships and villages in Shaanxi Province, yielding 1,083 valid questionnaires with an effective response rate of 91.3%. A Tobit regression model was applied to analyze the impact of digital literacy on participation in digital village initiatives. A panel conditional quantile regression was used to test the heterogeneity of this effect across different participation levels. Furthermore, a chained mediation model was employed to examine the mediating pathways of political trust and self-efficacy through which digital literacy affects digital village participation. The methodological framework is grounded in the SOR theory, providing an in-depth analysis of how digital technology stimuli influence participatory behavior through psychological states. The Tobit regression results show that digital literacy significantly enhances participation in Digital Village Development, the digital economy, and digital governance, but its effect on participation in digital benefit services is not significant. Conditional quantile regression reveals significant heterogeneity in the influence of digital literacy across different levels of participation. The chained mediation analysis indicates a significant direct effect of digital literacy (coefficient = 0.191, accounting for 60.72% of the total effect), alongside three indirect paths through political trust (17.17%), self-efficacy (16.53%), and the combined effect of political trust and self-efficacy (5.58%).These results reveal a complex multiple mediation mechanism through which digital literacy influences digital village participation among rural left-behind women. This study fills a research gap concerning the relationship between digital literacy and digital village participation among rural left-behind women and expands the application of the SOR theory in the context of Digital Village Development. The theoretical model proposed is not only suitable for the rural Chinese context but also holds universal significance for understanding digital empowerment mechanisms in marginalized populations. The findings emphasize that, beyond improving digital skills, enhancing political trust and self-efficacy is equally crucial. Accordingly, policymakers should design differentiated training and support strategies to comprehensively improve the digital literacy and participation capabilities of left-behind women, thereby facilitating the digital transformation of rural economies and societies. The sample of this study is limited to specific regions, which may affect the generalizability of the findings. The analytical models do not encompass all potential influencing factors, and the complex role of socio-cultural contexts requires further exploration. Future research should expand the sample scope, incorporate multidimensional factors, and deepen the understanding and verification of digital empowerment mechanisms.