How East Asian colorism influences the use of skin-whitening products: The case of Chinese adolescents

East Asian colorism refers to the favoring of lighter skin tones due to historical roots related to manual labor and social classes. This may influence the skincare behavior of people in modern society, particularly adolescents, who are vulnerable to social pressure. By conducting a Bayesian analysis aided by Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms on data from 11,926 middle-school students in China, we found that the use of skin-whitening products was positively associated with self-perception of lighter skin, being a girl, feeling that one’s skin tone was not attractive enough, constantly being evaluated about one’s skin tone, and observations of unfair treatment due to skin tone (including both negative bias toward darker skin and positive bias toward lighter skin). These findings provide practical guidance for policy making and educational and marketing approaches regarding adolescent health and skincare.