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. 2026 Apr 13;59(8):1687–1697. doi: 10.1002/eat.70108

Scrolling Toward Dissatisfaction? A Longitudinal Examination of Short‐Form Video Use, Body Dissatisfaction, and Disordered Eating Among Nurses

Wei Hong 1,2, Weibing Yang 1,2, Yixuan Niu 1,2, Qingqing Li 1,2,✉
PMCID: PMC13446232  PMID: 41968956

ABSTRACT

Objective

Although social media use is associated with disordered eating, prior research has predominantly focused on adolescent and university student populations; evidence from adult occupational groups remains limited. The present study examined the longitudinal association between short‐form video use and disordered eating among Chinese female nurses, specifically examining the mediating role of body dissatisfaction and the moderating role of sociocultural attitudes toward appearance.

Method

A two‐wave longitudinal design was employed. Participants were 400 registered female nurses recruited from a hospital in Wuhan, China, at baseline (T1), with 270 retained at the four‐month follow‐up (T2). Measures assessed short‐form video use and sociocultural attitudes at T1 and body dissatisfaction and disordered eating at T2. Structural equation modeling with bootstrapping was conducted to test mediation and moderated mediation hypotheses.

Results

Short‐form video use exhibited a significant indirect effect on subsequent disordered eating through increased body dissatisfaction. This indirect pathway was moderated by sociocultural attitudes toward appearance: the association between short‐form video use and body dissatisfaction was stronger among nurses with higher levels of perceived media pressure and thin‐ideal internalization.

Discussion

These findings identify body dissatisfaction as a key psychological mechanism linking short‐form video use to disordered eating and highlight sociocultural attitudes as critical susceptibility factors shaping vulnerability to media effects. Overall, this study extends media effects research to adult occupational populations and has important implications for prevention and intervention strategies to protect nurses' psychological well‐being in the digital age.

Keywords: body dissatisfaction, disordered eating, longitudinal study, nurses, short‐form video, sociocultural attitudes

Summary

  • Short‐form video use prospectively predicts disordered eating 4 months later among female nurses.

  • Body dissatisfaction mediates the longitudinal effect of short‐form video use on disordered eating.

  • Perceived media pressure and thin‐ideal internalization amplify this indirect association.

  • Sociocultural attitudes toward appearance explain differential susceptibility to the effects of short‐form video exposure.

1. Introduction

Social media has become an integral part of contemporary life, fundamentally reshaping the sociocultural context in which individuals encounter appearance‐related information and construct standards of physical attractiveness. In recent years, the rapid proliferation of short‐form video platforms (e.g., TikTok, Douyin, and Instagram Reels)—offering vertical, engaging content typically lasting 15–60 s (in some cases up to 3 min)—has generated new dynamics. This new form of digital media, saturated with highly curated and often digitally enhanced appearance‐focused content, may heighten appearance‐related concerns and increase vulnerability to disordered eating symptoms (Gurtala and Fardouly 2023; Roberts and Brown 2024). Disordered eating encompasses a spectrum of maladaptive eating‐related behaviors—ranging from restrictive dieting to more severe practices such as self‐induced vomiting—that pose significant risks to physical and psychosocial functioning (Verzijl et al. 2022). Importantly, these symptoms are prevalent even among individuals who do not meet full diagnostic criteria, underscoring the public health significance of understanding how emerging digital media environments contribute to such risk.

From developmental and sociocultural perspectives, females are generally more vulnerable to appearance‐related concerns (Ferguson et al. 2011; Rodgers and Rousseau 2022) and sociocultural influences (He et al. 2025), exhibiting a higher prevalence of eating pathology in both clinical and non‐clinical samples (Udo and Grilo 2018). Despite these well‐documented gender differences, much of the extant research on social media use and eating pathology has focused primarily on adolescents or university students (Thompson et al. 2023), with comparatively limited attention to adult occupational groups (Rodgers and Rousseau 2022). The nursing profession offers a unique context to address this issue because nursing is overwhelmingly—and in many settings, almost exclusively—female (Prosen and Čekada 2025), which represents a distinct demographic group of working adults who are likely exposed to appearance norms yet remain distinct from the developmental challenges of adolescence. In other words, nurses constitute a highly relevant population for examining the interplay among short‐form video use, appearance‐related concerns, and disordered eating symptoms. Furthermore, most existing studies have relied on cross‐sectional designs (Holland and Tiggemann 2016), limiting inferences about temporal relationships. To this end, the present study adopts a longitudinal design to examine the association between short‐form video use and disordered eating symptoms among female nurses, and critically, elucidates how psychological processes and sociocultural attitudes jointly shape these associations.

1.1. Short‐Form Video Use and Disordered Eating

Social media engagement has been identified as a salient risk factor for disordered eating (Holland and Tiggemann 2016; Rounsefell et al. 2020; Sharma and Vidal 2023). Besides traditional mass media sources, idealized body representations are now deeply embedded in contemporary digital media environments, promoting narrowly defined and often unattainable appearance ideals, characterized by youthfulness, incredible thinness, and fitness (Saul et al. 2022). In striving to attain these unrealistic standards, individuals may engage in maladaptive weight‐control behaviors, such as dietary restraint or complementary behaviors (e.g., self‐induced vomiting or taking laxatives). A substantial body of empirical research has documented positive associations between general social media engagement and disordered eating symptoms across diverse samples, including adolescents, university students, and adults (Mabe et al. 2014; Sidani et al. 2016).

More recently, short‐form video platforms have emerged as a medium that may pose particularly salient risks (Gurtala and Fardouly 2023; Zhang et al. 2025). Such platforms as TikTok create multimodal environments in which content integrates visual, auditory, and embodied elements, and is often meticulously selected and curated to emulate culturally dominant appearance ideals (Rodgers and Rousseau 2022). More importantly, machine‐learning algorithms personalize content streams based on users' prior viewing behaviors and preferences, resulting in increasingly appearance‐saturated media exposure (Saul et al. 2022). Together, these features may intensify attention to appearance‐related content and increase motivation to pursue idealized bodies, ultimately heightening vulnerability to disordered eating symptoms (Merino et al. 2024). Experimental evidence indicates that viewing short‐form videos related to food restriction increased the risk of disordered eating cognitions and behaviors (Davis et al. 2025). Likewise, short‐form video engagement has been found to associate with disordered eating among adolescents (Fan et al. 2025). Given the gender‐imbalanced and appearance‐salient nature of the nursing profession (Prosen and Čekada 2025), these risks may plausibly extend to nurses. Accordingly, frequent short‐form video use may predict disordered eating symptoms among nurses.

1.2. Body Dissatisfaction as a Mediator

To elucidate the psychological mechanisms underlying the relationship between short‐form video use and disordered eating, body dissatisfaction—defined as an individual's negative evaluations of one's own physical appearance or body—may serve as a key mediator. Theoretical and empirical research suggests that media exposure can elicit body dissatisfaction, which in turn increases vulnerability to disordered eating (Fan et al. 2025; Holland and Tiggemann 2016). According to social comparison theory, individuals possess an inherent tendency to evaluate themselves in relation to others (Festinger 1954). Subsequent social comparison models of appearance propose that individuals may compare their bodies with idealized body representations (O'Brien et al. 2009). In this sense, social media, particularly short‐form video platforms, are saturated with highly curated and digitally enhanced depictions of ideal bodies (Rodgers and Rousseau 2022; Saul et al. 2022). This may activate upward appearance comparisons, resulting in a marked discrepancy between one's actual body and idealized representations, thereby undermining body satisfaction (Merino et al. 2024; Zeigler‐Hill and Noser 2013). Empirical evidence supports this link by showing that viewing ideal videos or images (e.g., body‐focused content) increases negative affect and body dissatisfaction (Dhadly et al. 2023; Gurtala and Fardouly 2023; Samson and Zaitsoff 2023). Similarly, daily exposure to thinspiration and fitspiration content elicits a decline in body satisfaction (Griffiths and Stefanovski 2019). Meta‐analytic findings further confirm a positive association between social media use and body image disturbance based on cross‐sectional findings (Saiphoo and Vahedi 2019) and experimental and longitudinal evidence (de Valle et al. 2021).

In turn, body dissatisfaction is a well‐documented predictor of disordered eating (Zeigler‐Hill and Noser 2013). In particular, individuals who are dissatisfied with their bodies tend to possess a motivation to modify their bodies (Merino et al. 2024), manifested as maladaptive weight‐control behaviors, such as restrictive dieting. Longitudinal meta‐analytic findings demonstrate that self‐esteem, including body‐related aspects, prospectively predicts eating pathology even after controlling for baseline (Krauss et al. 2023). Integrating these theoretical frameworks, a recent study found that body dissatisfaction significantly mediates the association between short‐form video use and disordered eating, particularly salient among female adolescents (Fan et al. 2025). This mechanism may be equally applicable to the nursing profession, such that frequent short‐form video use undermines body satisfaction, thereby increasing vulnerability to disordered eating symptoms.

1.3. Sociocultural Attitudes Toward Appearance as a Moderator

Although ample evidence has linked social media use to body dissatisfaction, empirical findings have not been entirely consistent, with some studies reporting weak or non‐significant associations (Maes and Vandenbosch 2022), suggesting the presence of potential boundary conditions (Saiphoo and Vahedi 2019; Sanzari et al. 2023). According to the differential susceptibility to media effects model (Valkenburg and Peter 2013), media influences are not uniform but depend on dispositional, developmental, and social factors that systematically affect how individuals perceive, interpret, internalize, and respond to media content. Integrating this framework with the specific constructs of the tripartite influence model (Thompson et al. 1999), perceived media pressure and thin‐ideal internalization are two important sociocultural susceptibility factors that may condition the influence of media exposure.

Specifically, these appearance‐related sociocultural factors may moderate the association between short‐form video use and body dissatisfaction. Regarding media pressure, individuals who perceive strong appearance‐related pressure may be more sensitive and responsive to appearance‐focused content. For these individuals, frequent engagement with short‐form video platforms—accompanied with repeated exposure to idealized body images—may intensify upward appearance comparison, thereby eliciting negative self‐evaluations and exacerbating body dissatisfaction (Merino et al. 2024; Zeigler‐Hill and Noser 2013). In contrast, individuals who perceive low media pressure may be relatively buffered against such effects, even when they frequently engage in short‐form video platforms. Similarly, internalization of thin ideals may amplify the association between short‐form video use and body dissatisfaction. That is, individuals who strongly endorse thinness as a central criterion of appearance are more likely to evaluate their own bodies against narrowly defined appearance standards when exposed to idealized content, increasing the likelihood of body dissatisfaction and, subsequently, disordered eating symptoms (He et al. 2025; Shroff and Thompson 2006). In contrast, individuals who do not internalize thin ideals may be less likely to engage in negative self‐evaluations of appearance, rendering them more resilient to the potential harms of media exposure.

Supporting this moderating perspective, prior research has shown that internalization of appearance ideals moderates the association between social media use and body dissatisfaction, such that positive associations emerge only among adolescent boys with high levels of muscular‐ideal internalization (Vuong et al. 2021). Taken together, these theoretical considerations and empirical findings suggest that sociocultural attitudes toward appearance—specifically perceived media pressure and internalization of the thin ideals—function as critical boundary conditions that shape the association between short‐form video use and body‐related outcomes among nurses, with the association being stronger for nurses who report higher levels of perceived media pressure and thin‐ideal internalization.

1.4. The Present Study

Building on the above literature, the present study aimed to examine the associations between short‐form video use and eating‐related problems. Guided by the social comparison model of appearance (O'Brien et al. 2009), the differential susceptibility to media effects framework (Valkenburg and Peter 2013), and the tripartite influence model (Thompson et al. 1999), the present study proposed a moderated mediation model in which body dissatisfaction serves as a psychological mechanism linking short‐form video use to disordered eating, while sociocultural attitudes toward appearance function as boundary conditions that shape the strength of this association.

Besides the proposed integrated model, this study advances existing literature in two critical aspects. First, regarding the sample, prior research has predominantly focused on adolescents and young adult females (Thompson et al. 2023). This study focuses on nurses, a group embedded in a highly gender‐imbalanced occupational context, which can extend findings to a professionally distinct and theoretically meaningful context. Second, regarding the research design, much of the extant literature relies on cross‐sectional designs (Holland and Tiggemann 2016), limiting inferences about temporal ordering. To address this limitation, this study employed a two‐wave longitudinal design, with the independent and moderating variables assessed at Time 1 (T1) and the mediating and dependent variables assessed at Time 2 (T2). By simultaneously integrating media engagement, psychological processes, and sociocultural attitudes among nursing professionals, the present study proposes the following hypothesis (see Figure 1):

Short‐form video use at T1 will positively predict disordered eating at T2 among nurses.

Body dissatisfaction at T2 will significantly mediate the longitudinal relationship between short‐form video use at T1 and disordered eating at T2 among nurses.

Sociocultural attitudes toward appearance (i.e., perceived media pressure and internalization of thin ideals) at T1 will moderate the indirect effect of short‐form video use on disordered eating via body dissatisfaction. Specifically, the indirect effect will be stronger among nurses with higher levels of media pressure and of thin‐ideal internalization.

FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 1

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The conceptual model of disordered eating among nurses.

2. Method

2.1. Participants

Participants were recruited using a cluster sampling approach from a Grade A tertiary hospital in Wuhan, China. Data collection occurred in two waves: the baseline assessment was conducted in July 2025 (Time 1, T1), followed by a follow‐up assessment in November 2025 (Time 2, T2). Initially, 400 registered nurses completed the T1 survey. Of these, 270 participants were retained at T2. An attrition analysis indicated that nurses who completed both waves did not differ significantly from those who only participated at T1 in baseline levels of short‐form video use (t = −0.42, p = 0.68), perceived media pressure (t = −1.78, p = 0.08), or thin‐ideal internalization (t = −0.18, p = 0.86), suggesting minimal attrition bias. The sample consisted exclusively of female nursing professionals. With respect to professional rank, the sample included 103 junior nurses, 125 advanced nurses, 97 senior nurses, 39 expert nurses, and 36 charge nurses. Participants ranged in age from 22 to 54 years (M = 33.08, SD = 5.98), with their average length of working experience ranging from 1 to 35 years (M = 10.64, SD = 6.35).

2.2. Measures

2.2.1. Short‐Form Video Use

Short‐form video use was assessed at T1 using an adapted version of the Facebook Intensity scale developed by Ellison et al. (2007), with a slight modification of replacing “Facebook” with “short‐form video”. This scale captures two dimensions: behavioral engagement (e.g., “… approximately how many minutes per day have you spent on short‐form video?”) and emotional attachment (e.g., “Short‐form video has become part of my daily routine”). The items were rated on a 5‐point Likert scale (1 = completely disagree, 5 = completely agree), with higher scores indicating more intensive short‐form video use. This scale showed good internal consistency in this study (Cronbach's α = 0.89).

2.2.2. Sociocultural Attitudes Toward Appearance

Sociocultural attitudes toward appearance were assessed at T1 using two subscales from the Sociocultural Attitudes Toward Appearance Questionnaire‐4 Revised (Lim 2018; Schaefer et al. 2017). Consistent with this research focus, we selected two dimensions: perceived media pressure (e.g., “I feel pressure from the media to look in better shape”) and internalization of thin/low body fat (e.g., “I want my body to look very thin”). Participants responded on a 5‐point Likert scale (1 = completely disagree, 5 = completely agree), with higher scores reflecting greater perceived pressure from media and stronger internalization of thinness ideals. Both subscales showed excellent internal consistency in this study (Cronbach's α = 0.97 for media pressure; 0.94 for thin‐ideal internalization).

2.2.3. Body Dissatisfaction

Body dissatisfaction was measured at T2 using the appearance subscale of the Body Esteem Scale (Confalonieri et al. 2008). This subscale includes six items (e.g., “I wish I looked better”). Although originally designed to measure body esteem, it can effectively capture negative self‐evaluations of appearance and can be used as a broad indicator of body dissatisfaction (Vuong et al. 2021). Participants responded on a 5‐point Likert scale (0 = never, 4 = always), with higher scores indicating greater levels of body dissatisfaction. This subscale showed excellent internal consistency in this study (Cronbach's α = 0.92).

2.2.4. Disordered Eating

Symptoms of disordered eating were assessed at T2 using the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire‐Short (EDEQ‐Short), a valid 12‐item brief measure derived from the EDE‐Q (Fairburn and Beglin 2008). This scale is widely employed in clinical and research settings (e.g., The Child Outcomes Research Consortium) to evaluate the severity of eating pathology (e.g., “Have you been deliberately trying to limit the amount of food you eat to influence your weight or shape?”). Participants responded on a 4‐point Likert scale (0 = never, 3 = always), with higher scores indicating more severe disordered eating symptoms. This questionnaire showed excellent internal consistency in this study (Cronbach's α = 0.95).

2.3. Data Analysis

First, descriptive statistics and Pearson correlations were conducted using SPSS version 27.0. Second, moderated mediation models were performed using Mplus version 8.3. Missing data were addressed using the maximum likelihood (ML) method. Model fit was evaluated using commonly recommended indices: the Chi‐square values (χ 2), the comparative fit index (CFI), the Tucker‐Lewis fit index (TLI), the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA), and the standardized root mean square residual (SRMR). Following established guidelines (Wen et al. 2004), model fit was acceptable when CFI and TLI were ≥ 0.90 and the RMSEA and SRMR were ≤ 0.08.

3. Results

3.1. Descriptive Statistics and Correlations

The means, standard deviations, and Pearson correlations for the study variables are presented in Table 1. As shown, short‐form video use at T1, body dissatisfaction at T2, and disordered eating at T2 were significantly and positively interrelated. Furthermore, the two dimensions of sociocultural attitudes toward appearance—perceived media pressure and thin‐ideal internalization—were significantly correlated with the other variables. Regarding demographic characteristics, neither age nor working experience was significantly correlated with perceived media pressure, thin‐ideal internalization, body dissatisfaction, or disordered eating.

TABLE 1.

Means, standard deviations, and correlations among variables.

Variables M SD 1 2 3 4 5
1 T1 short‐form video use 2.87 0.83
2 T1 media pressure 2.42 1.10 0.33***
3 T1 thin‐ideal internalization 3.09 1.11 0.32*** 0.56***
4 T2 body dissatisfaction 1.84 0.63 0.28*** 0.42*** 0.29***
5 T2 disordered eating 1.68 0.58 0.18** 0.43*** 0.40*** 0.64***
6 Age 33.08 5.98 −0.24*** −0.09 −0.04 −0.11 0.04
7 Working experience (years) 10.64 6.35 −0.22*** −0.08 −0.03 −0.09 0.06
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Note: ** indicates p < 0.01 and *** indicates p < 0.001.

3.2. Examination of a Mediation Model

To examine the hypothesized relationships, structural equation modeling (SEM) with latent variables indicated by their respective observed items was conducted in two steps. First, a direct model examining the effect of short‐form video use at T1 on disordered eating at T2 (without the mediator) was specified. The model showed a satisfactory model fit: χ 2/df = 3.24, TLI = 0.92, CFI = 0.91, RMSEA = 0.07, and SRMR = 0.07. The results indicated that, after controlling for age, short‐form video use at T1 positively predicted disordered eating at T2 (β = 0.20, SE = 0.07, p = 0.002), supporting H1. Second, body dissatisfaction at T2 was introduced as a mediator to examine the mediating model. The model showed a satisfactory model fit: χ 2/df = 2.63, TLI = 0.92, CFI = 0.91, RMSEA = 0.06, and SRMR = 0.06. The results revealed that, after controlling for age, the direct effect of short‐form video use at T1 on disordered eating at T2 was not significant (β = 0.02, SE = 0.05, p = 0.76) when incorporating body dissatisfaction as a mediator. Critically, short‐form video use at T1 significantly and positively predicted body dissatisfaction at T2 (β = 0.30, SE = 0.06, p < 0.001), which in turn significantly predicted disordered eating at T2 (β = 0.68, SE = 0.04, p < 0.001). To further test the significance of this indirect pathway, a bootstrapping procedure with 1000 resamples was employed. The 95% bias‐corrected confidence interval (CI) for the indirect effect ranged from 0.11 to 0.31 and did not include zero, indicating that body dissatisfaction significantly mediated the longitudinal association between short‐form video use and disordered eating, supporting H2.

3.3. Examination of a Moderated Mediation Model

To further investigate whether sociocultural attitudes toward appearance moderated the indirect pathway from short‐form video use to disordered eating via body dissatisfaction, two moderated mediation models were tested separately, with perceived media pressure and thin‐ideal internalization serving as moderators. All items were centered prior to the generation of the interaction terms to mitigate potential multicollinearity. When perceived media pressure was specified as the moderator of the path from short‐form video use to body dissatisfaction, the model results showed an acceptable model fit: χ 2/df = 2.47, TLI = 0.92, CFI = 0.92, RMSEA = 0.06, and SRMR = 0.07. As displayed in Figure 2, the interaction between short‐form video use and media pressure significantly predicted body dissatisfaction (β = 0.18, SE = 0.06, p = 0.003). Simple slope analyses were conducted at high (M + SD) and low (M − SD) levels of the moderator. As illustrated in Figure 3 (See left panel), short‐form video use did not significantly predict body dissatisfaction when perceived media pressure was low (β = 0.08, SE = 0.07, p = 0.27). However, this prediction became significant and positive when media pressure was high (β = 0.29, SE = 0.08, p < 0.001). Following the recommendations of Edwards and Lambert (2007), the conditional indirect effect size should be further examined at varying levels of the moderator. As displayed in Figure 4 (See the left panel), the effect size increased with the increasing levels of perceived media pressure. Specifically, the 95% CI of the indirect effect ranged from 0.09 to 0.27 among nurses reporting high levels of media pressure, whereas the 95% CI of the indirect effect ranged from −0.06 to 0.15, indicating non‐significance among nurses reporting low levels of media pressure.

FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 2

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The moderated mediation of perceived media pressure as a moderator. Sfv = short‐form video use.

FIGURE 3.

FIGURE 3

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Sociocultural attitudes toward appearance moderating the effect of short‐form use on body dissatisfaction.

FIGURE 4.

FIGURE 4

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Sociocultural attitudes toward appearance as a function of the indirect path from short‐form use to disordered eating through body dissatisfaction.

A parallel moderated mediation model was estimated with thin‐ideal internalization as the moderator. The model also showed an acceptable model fit: χ 2/df = 2.22, TLI = 0.93, CFI = 0.92, RMSEA = 0.06, and SRMR = 0.07. As displayed in Figure 5, the interaction significantly predicted body dissatisfaction (β = 0.23, SE = 0.06, p < 0.001). As shown in Figure 3 (see right panel), simple slope analyses indicated that short‐form video use did not significantly predict body dissatisfaction when thin‐ideal internalization was low (β = 0.09, SE = 0.08, p = 0.21). However, this prediction became significant and positive when thin‐ideal internalization was high (β = 0.35, SE = 0.08, p < 0.001). As displayed in Figure 4 (see right panel), the effect size increased with the increasing levels of thin‐ideal internalization. The 95% CI of the indirect effect ranged from 0.12 to 0.31 among nurses reporting high levels of thin‐ideal internalization, whereas the 95% CI of the indirect effect ranged from −0.06 to 0.16, indicating non‐significance among nurses reporting low levels of thin‐ideal internalization. Altogether, these findings empirically support the moderating role of perceived media pressure and thin‐ideal internalization, which function as susceptibility factors that amplify the adverse indirect effect of short‐form video use on nurses' disordered eating via body dissatisfaction, supporting H3.

FIGURE 5.

FIGURE 5

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The moderated mediation of thin‐ideal internalization as a moderator.

4. Discussion

The present study is among the first, to our knowledge, to focus on nurses working within a highly gender‐imbalanced occupational context and to adopt a longitudinal design to examine the association between short‐form video use and disordered eating. By integrating body dissatisfaction as a mediating mechanism and sociocultural attitudes toward appearance as moderating conditions, this study found that short‐form video use at T1 not only directly predicted disordered eating at T2 but also exerted an indirect effect through body dissatisfaction at T2. Crucially, this indirect association was contingent upon sociocultural attitudes toward appearance: both perceived media pressure and internalization of thin ideals significantly strengthened the indirect effect. Taken together, this study provides a nuanced understanding of whether, how, and for whom contemporary digital media environments may shape eating‐related pathology among the nursing profession.

4.1. Short‐Form Video Use and Disordered Eating Among Nurses

The results indicated that frequent short‐form video use directly and positively predicted subsequent higher levels of disordered eating among our sample of Chinese nurses, without considering other variables. This extends prior research regarding social media and eating‐related problems by highlighting the distinct risks associated with short‐form video platforms (Fan et al. 2025). A potential explanation lies in the technological affordances of short‐form video platforms. First, these platforms not only inherit the risks of traditional media by disseminating highly curated and digitally enhanced appearance‐focused content but also introduce multimodal and immersive engagement (Zhang et al. 2025). Unlike static image‐based media, short‐form videos integrate visual, auditory, and embodied elements, which often encourage users not only to passively participate but also actively engage, such as using beauty filters to curate online images (Schroeder and Behm‐Morawitz 2025). These experiences likely intensify the salience of physical appearance and amplify body monitoring and its relevant concerns. Second, short‐form video platforms rely heavily on algorithmic recommendation systems, which expose appearance‐related content and create an appearance‐saturated “filter bubble” (Misnawati et al. 2025). Simultaneously, these algorithms can aggregate individuals with marginal interests, facilitating the normalization of appearance concerns and disordered eating symptoms (Saul et al. 2022). Consequently, these specific platform characteristics may exacerbate media‐related risk processes and contribute to heightened vulnerability to eating pathology.

Importantly, such media risks for disordered eating are not confined to adolescents or young adults but are also evident among nursing professionals. This may be due to the feature of the nursing profession (Prosen and Čekada 2025). Such a female‐dominant environment may intensify intrasexual competition, prompting females to prioritize relative (i.e., “having more than others”) over absolute (i.e., “having more overall”) gain regarding appearance enhancement (Xing et al. 2016). More directly, among females, greater intrasexual competitiveness has been associated with a greater willingness to engage in extreme weight‐control measures, such as restrictive dieting (Dubbs et al. 2025; Hendrickse et al. 2017). Although the present study did not directly compare nurses with other populations (e.g., women in gender‐balanced professions), this finding provides indirect support for the notion that gender‐imbalanced contexts may amplify appearance‐based comparison processes and pose heightened risks for eating pathology.

4.2. Body Dissatisfaction Mediating the Association

The results demonstrated that short‐form video use positively predicted subsequent body dissatisfaction, which in turn was associated with higher levels of disordered eating among nurses, supporting the mediating role of body dissatisfaction. This finding aligns with prior evidence obtained in adolescent samples (Fan et al. 2025) and extends the generalization of this mechanism to adult professional populations. Two complementary theoretical perspectives may explain the association between short‐form video engagement and body dissatisfaction, although this association has not yet been rigorously examined by assessing specific variables in the present study. First, from a social comparison perspective, nurses who frequently engage with short‐form video platforms are repeatedly exposed to idealized body representations. Such exposure provides nurses with intensive opportunities for upward appearance comparison (O'Brien et al. 2009), which may generate perceived discrepancies between actual appearance, thereby eliciting concerns about physical appearance and increasing body dissatisfaction (Merino et al. 2024; Zeigler‐Hill and Noser 2013). Furthermore, self‐objectification offers a complementary explanatory framework, which posits that exposure to appearance‐focused sociocultural environments encourages individuals to engage in self‐objectification—that is, to view their bodies primarily as objects to be observed and evaluated by others (Fredrickson and Roberts 1997). Short‐form video platforms likely amplify this process by foregrounding physical attributes. In this sense, nurses with frequent engagement may adopt an observer‐based perspective on their own bodies, shifting attention from bodily functionality to physical appearance, rendering individuals more vulnerable to body dissatisfaction (Gurtala and Fardouly 2023; Jongenelis and Pettigrew 2020).

Crucially, body dissatisfaction functions not only as an evaluative outcome but also as a motivational driver of compensatory behaviors. For instance, nurses who are dissatisfied with their bodies may engage in maladaptive weight‐control strategies in attempts to modify their appearance, thereby increasing the risk of disordered eating (Merino et al. 2024). Furthermore, it may be the case that when these weight‐control attempts fail or result in weight rebound, body dissatisfaction is likely to intensify, thereby reinforcing a maladaptive cycle that significantly heightens the risk of disordered eating. In sum, body dissatisfaction appears to serve as a key psychological mechanism linking frequent short‐form video use to disordered eating symptoms among nursing professionals.

4.3. Sociocultural Attitudes Toward Appearance Moderating the Indirect Effect

A pivotal contribution of this study lies in identifying sociocultural attitudes toward appearance as critical moderators that shape the strength of the indirect pathway from short‐form video use and disordered eating via body dissatisfaction. Specifically, perceived media pressure and internalization of thin ideals significantly strengthened the association between short‐form video use and body dissatisfaction, thereby amplifying the risk of disordered eating. These findings conceptually align with prior evidence showing that the internalization of muscular ideals strengthened the link between social media engagement and body dissatisfaction among boys (Vuong et al. 2021). This convergence of findings suggests that while the specific content of the ideal (muscularity vs. thinness) may differ, the underlying mechanism—internalization as a catalyst for media effects—remains consistent across groups.

Theoretically, these findings support the differential susceptibility to media effects model, which posits that media influences vary as a function of individual differences (Valkenburg and Peter 2013). For the present study, nurses who perceive strong media pressure to improve appearance may be particularly attuned to appearance‐related cues and likely to compare their bodies with physical ideals. Similarly, those who strongly internalize thinness as a criterion of appearance may primarily rely on the narrowly defined standards during the evaluation processes. For these high‐risk subgroups, frequent short‐form video engagement is more likely to elicit body dissatisfaction. In contrast, nurses reporting lower levels of media pressure and thin‐ideal internalization appeared relatively buffered from the negative consequences of short‐form video use, even at higher levels of engagement. This buffering effect aligns with theoretical considerations regarding media literacy. It is plausible that individuals who can critically evaluate and contextualize media messages are less likely to perceive media content as influential or authoritative, and are therefore less likely to internalize sociocultural ideals to evaluative standards of appearance (McLean et al. 2016). As a result, they may engage with short‐form video content more rationally, thereby maintaining a stable body evaluation and attenuating the negative impact of media exposure.

Taken together, these findings may help explain the inconsistency observed in the broader literature regarding the associations between social media use, body dissatisfaction, and disordered eating (Ferguson et al. 2011; Saiphoo and Vahedi 2019). Such inconsistency may arise from a lack of consideration of individual differences in sociocultural susceptibility. By modeling these appearance‐related attitudes as moderators, rather than mere outcomes of media use, this study underscores their role in transmitting media exposure into body dissatisfaction and subsequent disordered eating.

4.4. Limitations, Implications, and Future Directions

Several limitations of this study should be acknowledged. First, the reliance on self‐report measures may introduce response biases. Although analyses indicated no serious common method variance, future research could benefit from multi‐method approaches, such as including objective indicators of short‐form video time records, particularly differentiating appearance‐focused content from other types of engagement. Similarly, incorporating implicit measures of body image (e.g., relational responding tasks) (Heider et al. 2018) might further strengthen measurement validity. Second, although a two‐wave longitudinal design was employed, the predictor, mediator, and outcome constructs were not repeatedly assessed across both time points. This design precludes the control of baseline levels (i.e., autoregressive effects), thereby limiting the ability to draw causal inferences. Future studies could adopt multi‐wave or cross‐lagged panel designs to more rigorously capture the temporal dynamics and directional pathways among these constructs over time. Third, body mass index (BMI) is an established and salient factor for disordered eating (Slevec and Tiggemann 2011). However, this study did not include BMI as a covariate, which may confound some of the observed associations. Future research could incorporate objective or self‐reported BMI to systematically control for or directly examine its effect within the models of media‐related eating risk. Finally, although this study focused on sociocultural attitudes (specifically media pressure and thin‐ideal internalization) as susceptibility factors, the differential susceptibility to media effects model emphasizes that media effects are also contingent upon dispositional and developmental factors (Valkenburg and Peter 2013). Future research could extend this work by examining individual differences in other potential factors, which would allow for a more comprehensive framework of media effects on body image and eating pathology.

Despite these limitations, the present study makes important theoretical contributions. This research provides longitudinal evidence that short‐form video use is associated with eating‐related problems among nurses and identifies body dissatisfaction as a critical psychological mechanism. The findings underscore that body image concerns and disordered eating are not restricted to adolescents or young adults but also constitute meaningful psychological risks among adult professional populations. More critically, the findings provide longitudinal support for the differential susceptibility to media effects model (Valkenburg and Peter 2013) by demonstrating that perceived media pressure and thin‐ideal internalization function as susceptibility factors that shape how media use transmits into body dissatisfaction and subsequent disordered eating symptoms. By identifying both how and for whom short‐form video use poses greater risk, this study advances a more integrative understanding of the interplay between media engagement, body‐related self‐evaluation, and eating pathology over time.

The present findings also have practical implications. Given the observed pathway linking short‐form video use to disordered eating symptoms via body dissatisfaction, mental health professionals should guide nurses toward more reflective and balanced use of short‐form video platforms. Reducing excessive engagement with algorithmically curated appearance‐related content and diversifying feeds to include body‐positivity (Dhadly et al. 2023; Sanzari et al. 2023) may help foster body acceptance and mitigate eating‐related risk. More critically, implicated by the moderating role of sociocultural attitudes, hospitals and employee assistance programs could develop targeted media literacy training, which has been found to reduce the impacts of media exposure and the internalization of sociocultural ideals by enhancing critical evaluation of media images (McLean et al. 2016). Accordingly, these interventions may effectively attenuate the negative impact of inevitable short‐form video engagement. Collectively, these efforts may support nurses' psychological well‐being and contribute to a healthier and more sustainable healthcare workforce.

Author Contributions

Wei Hong: conceptualization, methodology, investigation, formal analysis, funding acquisition, writing – original draft, writing – review and editing. Weibing Yang: conceptualization, investigation, writing – review and editing. Yixuan Niu: conceptualization, investigation, writing – review and editing. Qingqing Li: conceptualization, writing – review and editing.

Funding

This research was supported by the Hubei Provincial Postdoctoral Innovation Talent Training Program under Grant [No. 2025HBBSHCXB013], National Social Science Fund of China under Grant [No. 24CSH080], China Postdoctoral Science Foundation under Grant [No. 2024M761092], Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under Grant [No. CCNU24XJ012 and CCNU24JCPT038], and Key Laboratory of Adolescent Cyberpsychology and Behavior, Ministry of Education under Grant [No. CCNUCYPSYLAB2025B03].

Ethics Statement

Ethical approval for this study was obtained from the Human Research Sub‐Committee, Ethic Committee, Central China Normal University (ID: CCNU‐IRB‐202506028A).

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Acknowledgments

During the preparation of this work, the authors used generative AI tools primarily for the purpose of language polishing and refinement, including checking grammar. The authors have thoroughly reviewed all material and take full responsibility for the content of the publication.

Hong, W. , Yang W., Niu Y., and Li Q.. 2026. “Scrolling Toward Dissatisfaction? A Longitudinal Examination of Short‐Form Video Use, Body Dissatisfaction, and Disordered Eating Among Nurses.” International Journal of Eating Disorders 59, no. 8: 1687–1697. 10.1002/eat.70108.

Action Editor: Jake Linardon

Data Availability Statement

The datasets generated during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Associated Data

This section collects any data citations, data availability statements, or supplementary materials included in this article.

Data Availability Statement

The datasets generated during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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