Adolescent Anxiety and TikTok: An Exploratory Study

Introduction Social media is ubiquitous in adolescents' lives. TikTok is a medium primarily used by adolescents and young adults under 30 years. TikTok is thus an appropriate social media platform with which to examine discussions of anxiety among this age cohort. In this exploratory mixed-methods study we aimed to evaluate the scope of anxiety content available on TikTok in English in December 2021, and to further develop methods for analysing TikTok content. Methods We analysed a data set of 147 TikToks with the hashtag #anxiety. The data set consisted both of metadata and TikTok videos. This data set represented 18% of all TikToks featuring the hashtag #anxiety in December 2021. We examined the following research questions (RQs). RQ1: What are the creator identities reflected in the final data set in this study?; RQ2: What are the metadata characteristics of the TikToks in the final data set?; RQ3: What are the anxiety content themes in the final data set?; and RQ4: What are the characteristics of the data set based on an anxiety management reference checklist? This study involves public data that can reasonably be observed by strangers. This study does not include any identifiable human participants. Results Influencers were the most frequent creator identity in our data set. Influencers comprised 85.5% of the 147 TikToks in our final data set. We coded 79 female (54%) and 45 male (31%) influencers. We found male influencers created the most played (mean 8,114,706), and most liked (mean 1,510,585) TikToks. We found content themes varied by influencer gender. The notable findings were (a) the greater use of humour by males (22.7% males; n=10, and females 12.6%; n=10); and (b) inspiration (38.7%; males n=17; and 13.9%; females n=11). Among female influencers, we identified self-disclosure as the most common theme (n= 40 and 50.7% compared with n=11 and 25% male influencers). Overall, we found limited references to evidence-based anxiety self-care content in our final data set. Discussion We suggest that the TikToks in our data set were primarily directed at raising awareness of and de-stigmatising anxiety symptoms. TikTok anxiety content may be viewed by adolescents for emotional self-regulation beyond evidence-based health information seeking. Self-disclosure on TikTok may also provide symptomatic relief to adolescents with anxiety. We suggest that gender is a salient consideration when considering TikTok content. Conclusions Our findings are consistent with existing literature on adolescent social media use and epidemiological data on anxiety. This research also provides methodological insights for researchers and clinicians seeking to understand TikTok, and to develop engaging content targeted at the specific concerns and preferences of adolescent TikTok consumers.

Intersecting Sexual Identities, Oppressions, and Social Justice Work: Comparing LGBTQ Baby Boomers to Millennials Who Came of Age After the 1980s AIDS Epidemic

In this study we analyze 50 interviews with racially diverse, predominantly low-income, LGBTQ participants living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Rooted in intersectional theory that conceptualizes identities as shaped by interlocking forms of oppression and privilege, we compared interviews with "Baby Boomers" to those with "Millennial" participants, who came into adulthood in a time of greater legal and social inclusion for LGBTQ people. Our analysis focused on three questions: How do participants understand their sexual identities? How are the identities of sexual minority participants co-constructed with intersecting forms of oppression? What motivates LGBTQ people in our sample to engage in social justice work? We found that white LGBTQ people tended to see their sexualities as primary to their identity, compared to LGBTQ Black and/or Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) who tended to see their identities in intersectional terms. Younger LGBTQ people were more likely to delink sex and gender identity; consequently, they were more likely to frame their sexual identities with terms not rooted in a gender binary (e.g., pansexual or queer). Experiences with homophobia were prevalent across generations, and intersected with racism and economic oppressions, but younger people more often described support from institutional agents. Participants' sense of community and commitment to giving back after experiences of trauma motivated them to engage in social justice work. Our findings highlight the intersectional nature of oppressions faced by LGBTQ people and the need for organizations to move away from focusing exclusively on homophobic oppression as a monolith.

Advances in our understanding of the influence of gender on patient outcomes with peripheral arterial disease co-occurring with diabetes

Peripheral arterial disease is an important predictor of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Patients with peripheral arterial disease are at a higher risk of myocardial infarction and stroke. The well-known coronary artery disease risk factors such as diabetes, hypertension, smoking and dyslipidemia are also risk factors for peripheral arterial disease. Hyperglycemia is an important mediator in the pathogenesis of this disease in diabetics, more so in women. The morbidity and poor outcomes associated with peripheral arterial disease in women are emerging. Women are more likely to present at an older age are often asymptomatic and have poorer outcomes with revascularization. Women experience specific sex-related challenges in the various diagnostic methods which could lead to a delay in diagnosis. This is a group which needs close attention and aggressive risk factor modification.

Gender variation of sequential inflorescences in a monoecious plant Sagittaria trifolia (Alismataceae)

In protogynous plants, female flowers of early blooming plants are at a reproductive disadvantage because they cannot set fruit due to the lack of available pollen. To study this phenomenon, gender expression of the monoecious herb Sagittaria trifolia was investigated over the entire flowering season in two field and two cultivated populations in Hubei and Hunan Provinces, China. In racemes of S. trifolia, flowers open sequentially from bottom to top, with female flowers opening first followed by male flowers. This creates a temporal separation of sexes in the species. Under field conditions small plants are often male, with production of both male and female flowers increasing with plant size. Femaleness increased among sequential inflorescences since female flower production increased whereas male flower production did not. Seed production was greater in large inflorescences because they contain more female flowers, and the number of ovules increased in female flowers at basal positions within the raceme. A consistent pattern of high seed set was observed in flowers from both field and cultivated populations. About 1 % of unfertilized ovules resulted from no pollination and 2 % of the seeds produced were only partly developed due to resource limitation. In the first inflorescence of the six experimental populations, 6.7-40.0 % of individuals produced only male flowers, and female flowers of 1.9-6.5 % individuals were aborted. The occurrence of male flowers in early blooming inflorescences could be an adaptive strategy to conserve resources and enhance pollination of female flowers in protogynous S. trifolia.