The Influencing Factors of Achievement-Oriented Content in Douyin Short Videos on Anxiety among University Students
Abstract
In recent years, a large amount of achievement-oriented content on the Douyin platform has easily triggered social comparison upward among college students, giving rise to peer competitive pressure and exacerbating anxiety. Most existing studies only generally explore the correlation between overall short video usage and anxiety, lacking a unified explanation for the mechanism by which achievement-oriented content in short videos induces anxiety. Therefore, based on the theory of social comparison, this study conducts correlation analysis, regression analysis, and mediation effect tests by collecting questionnaire data from 150 college students. It explores how achievement-oriented content in Douyin short videos affects college students' anxiety. The results show that the more achievement-oriented content college students receive, the more severe their anxiety becomes. Among them, only achievement-oriented short video content is linearly correlated with anxiety, and upward social comparison plays a mediating role and positively affects anxiety levels. Therefore, achievement-oriented short video content can positively and directly trigger upward social comparison among college students and further induce anxiety.
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