{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,21]],"date-time":"2026-09-21T10:04:49Z","timestamp":1789985089324,"version":"4.0.1"},"reference-count":53,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]],"date-time":"2026-09-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1789689600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100010814","name":"Anhui Provincial Higher Education Quality Engineering Project","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2025jyxm0018"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2025jyxm0018"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100010814","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Anhui Provincial Philosophy and Social Science Project","award":["AHSKY2022D181"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["AHSKY2022D181"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100006462","name":"Anhui Agricultural University Key Teaching Research Project","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2025aujyxm027"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2025aujyxm027"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100006462","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Behav. Sci.","Behavioral Sciences"],"abstract":"<jats:p>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 \u2192 exercise identity \u2192 mindful eating \u2192 body appreciation) was significant only among women (effect = 0.069, 95% CI [0.037, 0.111]), with a significant gender difference (Women\u2013Men diff = 0.062, 95% CI [0.019, 0.111]). The indirect pathway through exercise identity alone (engagement \u2192 exercise identity \u2192 body appreciation) was significant only among men (effect = 0.124, 95% CI [0.059, 0.199]), also with a significant gender difference (Women\u2013Men diff = \u22120.111, 95% CI [\u22120.204, \u22120.022]). 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.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/bs16091685","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,21]],"date-time":"2026-09-21T09:01:38Z","timestamp":1789981298000},"page":"1685","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Fitness-Related Short Video Engagement and Body Appreciation: Gender-Differentiated Indirect Pathways via Exercise Identity and Mindful Eating"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Yuqiang","family":"Zhang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physical Education, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"software","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"funding-acquisition","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Xiaofei","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"funding-acquisition","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"149","DOI":"10.1016\/j.bodyim.2020.11.006","article-title":"Body functionality: A review of the literature","volume":"36","author":"Alleva","year":"2021","journal-title":"Body Image"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"747","DOI":"10.1177\/003151259407800313","article-title":"Development of an exercise identity scale","volume":"78","author":"Anderson","year":"1994","journal-title":"Perceptual and Motor Skills"},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"Cash, T. 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