Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42299715›Full record

ArticleThe International journal of eating disorders2026

Blurring the Boundaries: An Investigation of Eating Disorder Recovery Content on TikTok.

Scott Griffiths, Isabel Martyn, Harish Kannan, Ben Stone, Emma Austen, Edoardo Tescari, Usha Nattala, Wesley Grey, Noa Brittain, Deborah Mitchison and 3 more

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in The International journal of eating disorders, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

13 authors.

Scott GriffithsMelbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6366-3560
Isabel MartynMelbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0007-0842-9329
Harish KannanMelbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0008-7728-1214
Ben StoneMelbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0009-0091-0139
Emma AustenMelbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1598-1342
Edoardo TescariMelbourne Data Analytics Platform, School of Computing and Information Systems, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1157-4897
Usha NattalaMelbourne Data Analytics Platform, School of Computing and Information Systems, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0360-6900
Wesley GreyMelbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0797-1910
Noa BrittainMelbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0006-1073-6371
Deborah MitchisonDiscipline of Psychology, Graduate School of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6736-7937
Jake LinardonSchool of Psychology, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4475-7139
Jasmine FardoulySchool of Psychology, Faculty of Science, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5648-6757
Emily HarrisMelbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1777-083X

Funding

Medical Research Future Fund 1193738National Health and Medical Research Council 1179321
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveEating disorder recovery content is widely circulated on TikTok. We thematically analyzed recovery content on TikTok, examined its associations with symptom severity among individuals with eating disorders, and assessed its co-occurrence with pro-eating disorder material within their TikTok feeds.

methodStudy 1 was a qualitative reflexive thematic analysis of 250 TikTok posts containing eating disorder recovery hashtags. Study 2 was a quantitative examination of TikTok usage data and symptom severity collected from 42 individuals with eating disorders over a one-month period.

resultsFifty percent of "recovery" posts contained pro-eating disorder elements, including imagery or messaging consistent with disordered eating norms, weight comparisons, and thin-ideal reinforcement. Quantitative analyses provided no evidence that greater exposure to recovery content was associated with lower or higher eating disorder symptom severity, although the study was underpowered to detect small-to-moderate effects. Recovery and pro-eating disorder content were strongly correlated within participants' TikTok feeds in terms of the volume of videos delivered (Spearman's ρ = 0.91) and their proportional representation (ρ = 0.77), with the former association remaining high even after controlling for overall TikTok exposure (ρ = 0.81). DISCUSSION: Our findings raise concerns about the safety of TikTok recovery spaces. TikTok content pitched as "eating disorder recovery" frequently contains pro-eating disorder features, shows no strong protective association with symptom severity, and is regularly encountered alongside pro-eating disorder content within users' feeds. We conclude that overlap between recovery content and pro-eating disorder content operates at two levels: within individual videos and across the broader feed context.

Indexed as

Feeding and Eating DisordersAdultDigital MediaFemaleHumansMedia ExposureSeverity of Illness Indexalgorithmseating disorderspro‐eating disorderrecoverysocial mediaTikTok

Identifiers

PMID42299715
PMCPMC13655981

What OpenQuestion holds

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.