Fitness-Related Short Video Engagement and Body Appreciation: Gender-Differentiated Indirect Pathways via Exercise Identity and Mindful Eating

This cross-sectional study examined the association between self-reported fitness-related short video social media engagement and body appreciation among Chinese college students, focusing on the mediating roles of exercise identity and mindful eating and whether these pathways differed by gender. A total of 536 Chinese college students (270 women, 266 men) completed self-report measures. Multigroup structural equation modeling (SEM) with 5000 bootstrap resamples was used to test the hypothesized mediation pathways and formally compare indirect effects across genders. Measurement invariance was examined; only body appreciation achieved partial metric invariance, and the exercise identity scale showed suboptimal configural fit, so gender comparisons involving the other latent variables should be interpreted with caution. The serial mediation pathway (engagement → exercise identity → mindful eating → body appreciation) was significant only among women (effect = 0.069, 95% CI [0.037, 0.111]), with a significant gender difference (Women–Men diff = 0.062, 95% CI [0.019, 0.111]). The indirect pathway through exercise identity alone (engagement → exercise identity → body appreciation) was significant only among men (effect = 0.124, 95% CI [0.059, 0.199]), also with a significant gender difference (Women–Men diff = −0.111, 95% CI [−0.204, −0.022]). These findings suggest that the processes linking fitness-related short-video engagement and body appreciation may differ by gender. Among women, the observed indirect association was consistent with a sequential pathway involving both exercise identity and mindful eating, whereas among men, the observed indirect association was primarily explained by exercise identity. These findings are correlational and hypothesis-generating and require replication in longitudinal and experimental research before any causal or interventional implications can be drawn.