ArticleJournal of eating disorders2023
Chinese TikTok (Douyin) challenges and body image concerns: a pilot study.
Article in Journal of eating disorders, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Age-stratified Discrepancy Between Expectations and Satisfaction in Facial Cosmetic Surgery: A Retrospective Cohort Analysis.Aesthetic plastic surgery · 2026Article
- Tick-Tock, the Time Has Come: Leveraging TikTok to Understand, Prevent, and Treat Eating Disorders.The International journal of eating disorders · 2026Review
- Improving body image in female Chinese social media users with eating disorder symptoms: a randomized controlled trial of two online self-guided single-session interventions.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Article
- A dual-focus validation of visual body image assessment tools and their link to eating disorders in Chinese young males.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Psychosocial profiles and motivations for adolescent engagement in hazardous games: the role of boredom, peer influence, and self-harm tendencies.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- The extent of weight bias against obese patients among allied healthcare professional students in Jordan.Journal of education and health promotion · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundSocial media content on Western platforms promoting thinness, or thinspiration, has been found to negatively affect body image perception of users. Less is known about non-Western social media use and its effects on body image concerns. Chinese TikTok, known as Douyin, is a popular short video platform with 600 million daily active users. Recent trends on Douyin encourage users to demonstrate thinness through participation in 'body challenges'. This paper argues that such content is comparable to thinspiration, however, to date hardly any research has been undertaken on these challenges. Thus, this pilot study aimed to analyse the content of three viral challenges and investigate their impact on Douyin users.
methodsThirty most viewed videos were collected for three challenges (N = 90): the Coin challenge, the A4 Waist challenge, and the Spider leg challenge. Videos were coded for variables relating to thin idealisation, including thin praise, sexualisation and objectification, and analysed through content analytic methods. Video comments (N ≈ 5500) were analysed through thematic analysis, and main themes were identified.
resultsPreliminary findings showed that participants who objectified their bodies to a greater extent expressed more negative body image concerns. In addition, comments on the videos had themes of thin praise, self-comparison, and promotion of dieting behaviours. In particular, videos of the A4 Waist challenge were found to incite more negative self-comparison in viewers.
conclusionPreliminary findings suggest all three challenges promote the thin ideal and encourage body image concerns. Further research about the broader impact of body challenges is needed.
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