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

Abstract

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