Well, there’s this TikTok: : adolescent mental health literacy and social media use in Aotearoa New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

Abstract

This thesis investigated whether mental health literacy (MHL) scores vary by rainbow status or wellbeing scores; how Aotearoa New Zealand (AoNZ ) young people access and interact with MH messages and whether these behaviours vary by rainbow status or wellbeing scores; and whether access to and interaction with online mental health messaging predicts MHL. Adolescents (N = 306) aged 16-19 years old, living in AoNZ completed an online survey covering their demographics including sexual and gender identity, two measures of wellbeing, two measures of mental health literacy, and their social media use particularly related to mental health content. Descriptive statistics, chi-square analysis and regressions were used to analyse the data. Overall, the study provided promising results for MHL in AoNZ with a high level of recognition of anxiety and MHLS scores comparable with previous overseas studies. Rainbow participants had significantly higher MHLS scores, but there was no significant relationship between wellbeing status and MHLS scores. The young people in the sample are online every day, and 88.6% reported previously looking up mental health information (MHI) online. Furthermore, almost all participants reported having seen MHI while scrolling their social media feed, with Instagram and TikTok the most common applications for MHI, both while scrolling and actively looking. Rainbow participants access online MHI more than their non-rainbow peers, but there were no significant group differences in items related to interacting with MHI on social media. There were significant group differences in both accessing and interacting with MHI online and on social media by wellbeing status, with those with lower wellbeing more frequently accessing and interacting with online MHI. Finally, the data suggests that those with higher access or interaction with online MHI have higher MHL than those with lower access or interaction with MHI online. This thesis provides important insights into the behaviour of AoNZ young people engaging with mental health content online and on social media, particularly for Rainbow young people. This is the first study connecting the way teens use social media and online mental health information to mental health literacy, providing an important avenue to consider how teens are developing their mental health literacy.