Mental Health Influencers in the Age of TikTok: Investigating TikTok's Role in ADHD Literacy

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, TikTok has become a primary source for health information among young adults. Its highly engaging algorithm and short-form content have made it a popular platform for learning about various mental health issues. However, concerns have been raised about the mental health content shared on TikTok and its overall accuracy, particularly regarding Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), which is often oversimplified and misrepresented. In this context, mental health influencers have emerged on TikTok in an attempt to increase the public understanding of disorders like ADHD. Given that the role of mental health influencers is significantly underexplored, this study aimed to investigate the extent to which the perceived credibility of mental health influencers on TikTok mediates the relationship between information-seeking motives and ADHD-related mental health literacy among young TikTok users. Drawing on the Uses and Gratifications theory, the Source Credibility Model, and the SoMeLit media literacy framework, a quantitative online survey was conducted among 155 participants aged 18-34, who had encountered ADHD-related content and engaged with mental health influencers on TikTok. A moderated mediation was employed to explore whether this relationship is moderated by informational and digital literacy. The findings revealed that, while information-seeking motives positively predicted the perceived trustworthiness of MHIs, this trust did not lead to higher ADHD literacy. Moreover, neither informational nor digital literacy significantly moderated this relationship, while the direct and indirect effects of information-seeking on ADHD literacy were not significant. These results suggest that although TikTok may encourage trust in mental health influencers, entertainment focus may limit deeper learning. The findings also highlight the complexity of evaluating mental health information in platforms that are algorithm-driven. Therefore, despite limitations, this study contributes to the growing literature on digital health communication and underscores the need for reliable, evidence-based content in the context of neurodevelopmental disorders.