Self-Harm and Suicide-Related Content on TikTok: Thematic Analysis.

IF 6 2区医学 Q1 HEALTH CARE SCIENCES & SERVICES

Journal of Medical Internet Research Pub Date : 2025-09-18 DOI:10.2196/77828

Gillian Grant-Allen, Lezhi Wang, Jasmine Amini, Simran Dhaliwal, Mark Sinyor, Rachel Hb Mitchell

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background: Social media platforms, such as TikTok, may be powerful vectors for transmission of both harmful and helpful self-harm and suicide-related content; however, this has not been rigorously studied.

Objective: This study aims to identify and understand the themes and overall characteristics of videos related to self-harm and suicide on TikTok.

Methods: Snowball sampling was used to identify the 10 most-viewed TikTok hashtags related to self-harm and suicide, which were then used to select the most-viewed English-language posts up to June 2023. An inductive coding reliability approach to thematic analysis was iteratively applied by 2 independent coders to identify and analyze common themes within the videos.

Results: In total, 188 videos were included in the thematic analysis. Five main themes and 2 subthemes were identified: emotional distress, hope and recovery-based messaging, grief and memorialization of those who died by suicide, social functions associated with self-harm and suicide-related content (subthemes: gallows humor and sarcasm; glamorization of self-harm and suicide-related behavior), and shame and guilt associated with self-harm and suicide-related behavior.

Conclusions: Self-harm and suicide-related content on TikTok was diverse, encompassing both potentially harmful (eg, normalization of self-harm behavior) and helpful (eg, recovery-focused messaging) characteristics. Therefore, a multifaceted and collaborative approach is needed to address the risks of potentially harmful content while leveraging the positive characteristics to promote the safety and well-being of TikTok users.

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“TikTok上的自残和自杀相关内容：专题分析”。

背景：抖音等社交媒体平台可能是传播有害和有益的自残和自杀相关内容的有力载体；然而，这还没有经过严格的研究。目的：本研究旨在识别和了解TikTok上自残和自杀相关视频的主题和整体特征。方法：采用滚雪球抽样方法确定了10个观看次数最多的与自残和自杀有关的TikTok话题标签，然后确定了截至2023年6月观看次数最多的英语视频。两名独立编码器迭代应用归纳编码可靠性方法进行主题分析，以识别和分析视频中的共同主题。结果：共有188个视频被纳入主题分析。确定了五个主要主题和两个次要主题：情绪困扰；以希望和恢复为基础的信息传递；对自杀者的哀悼和悼念；与自残/自杀相关内容相关的社会功能(副主题：绞刑架幽默和讽刺；美化自残/自杀相关行为)；以及与自残/自杀相关行为相关的羞耻和内疚。结论：TikTok上的自残和自杀相关内容多种多样，既有潜在的有害（例如，自残行为的正常化），也有有益（例如，以康复为中心的消息传递）的特征。因此，需要采取多方面的合作方式来解决潜在有害内容的风险，同时利用抖音的积极特征来促进用户的安全和健康。临床试验:

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Medical Internet Research 医学-卫生保健

CiteScore

14.40

自引率

5.40%

发文量

654

审稿时长

1 months

期刊介绍： The Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) is a highly respected publication in the field of health informatics and health services. With a founding date in 1999, JMIR has been a pioneer in the field for over two decades. As a leader in the industry, the journal focuses on digital health, data science, health informatics, and emerging technologies for health, medicine, and biomedical research. It is recognized as a top publication in these disciplines, ranking in the first quartile (Q1) by Impact Factor. Notably, JMIR holds the prestigious position of being ranked #1 on Google Scholar within the "Medical Informatics" discipline.