TikTok Practices among Teenagers in Portugal: A Uses & Gratifications Approach
Open accessAbstract
TikTok is consolidating its place in the social media landscape. During the first three months of the COVID-19, it was the most downloaded app worldwide, and it gained 500,000 new users in Portugal. Our study sets out to map the practices of Portuguese teenagers (10–16) on TikTok. Using a Uses and Gratifications approach (U&G), we conducted an online survey with a non-probabilistic sample of 347 TikTok users. Our findings show relevant differences between younger (10–12) and older (13–16) teenagers. The youngest are more careful about privacy and enjoy more experimentation as content creators, while the oldest are more focused on building an audience. Entertainment and self-expression are the main motivations for using the platform. About 50% of our sample admits at least one behavior that is indicative of addiction.
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Dias and Duarte (2022) found that entertainment and self-expression were the main motivations for using TikTok among teenagers in Portugal.
“They concluded that entertainment and self-expression were the main motivations for using this platform.”
From Applying Uses and Gratifications Theory to TikTok: A systematic literature review of users' motivations (2025) · cites this paper as Dias and Duarte (2022)
Cites
Omar, B., & Dequan, W. (2020) · International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies (iJIM) · doi:10.3991/ijim.v14i04.12429 · Cited by 493 · see citing works
Uses and gratifications sought by pre-adolescent and adolescent TikTok consumers
Bucknell Bossen, C., & Kottasz, R. (2020) · Young Consumers · doi:10.1108/yc-07-2020-1186 · Cited by 305 · see citing works
Research on the Causes of the “Tik Tok” App Becoming Popular and the Existing Problems
Xu, L., Yan, X., & Zhang, Z. (2019) · Journal of Advanced Management Science · doi:10.18178/joams.7.2.59-63 · Cited by 163 · see citing works
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Balcı, Ş., Akgül, T. E., & Astam, F. K. (2024) · Erciyes İletişim Dergisi · doi:10.17680/erciyesiletisim.1442074 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Krstić, J., & Domazet, I. (2025) · Marketing · doi:10.5937/mkng2504265k
- Authors
- Dias, P., & Duarte, A.
- Affiliations
- Universidade Católica Portuguesa (PT)
- Centro de Estudos de Comunicação e Sociedade (PT)
- Corresponding author
- Duarte, Alexandre
- Venue
- Journalism and Media
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2022-09-28
- Volume
- 3
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 615-632
- ISSN
- 2673-5172 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4297541658
- Cited by
- 40
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 5
- FWCI
- 11.15
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journalism and Media (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (RCAAP Project by FCT) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (RCAAP Project by FCT) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Networks and Communications › Media and Digital Communication
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender, Feminism, and Media
- Keywords
- TikTok, adolescents, uses and gratifications theory, social media practices, privacy concerns, content creation, audience building, entertainment, self-expression, social media addiction, age differences, COVID-19 pandemic
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