2 - (SYM 72) From Views to Vulnerability: Examining the Relationship Between Tiktok Use and Suicidal Ideation and Behaviors in Adolescents and Young Adults

In the United States, approximately 1 in 5 adolescent and young adults (AYAs) have seriously thought about suicide (SAMHSA, 2021). Today’s AYAs are immersed in digital spaces with TikTok being among the most popular platforms used by over 63% of US AYAs (Proulx, 2022). TikTok’s content recommendation algorithm curates personalized content based on user behavior to keep them engage. This can be problematic for AYAs who are particularly vulnerable to the diffusion or transmission of thoughts and behaviors through a social network (Jarvi et al., 2013; Mueller et al., 2015; Yildiz et al., 2019). There is therefore a need to better understand how TikTok use influences mental health and suicidal ideation. This presentation will report preliminary findings from a study that seeks to examine typical TikTok usage patterns in AYAs with suicidal ideation.

Participants (ages 13-25) who regularly use TikTok were recruited from local clinics, colleges, and the community were assessed for current suicidal ideation using the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire-Junior (SIQ-JR; Reynolds, 1987; 1999) and lifetime history of suicidal behaviors using the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale Screener (C-SSRS; Posner et al., 2011). They were also asked to describe their comfort with receiving different social media-based interventions. Finally, they were guided to download and submit their personal TikTok user data. From their user data, we extracted information about their TikTok Use in the month, week, and day before their interview including their average frequency of logins, number of videos viewed, videos viewed per login, and length of video viewing sessions. We examined how TikTok use correlates with current suicidal ideation and used logistic regressions to determine whether certain patterns of TikTok Use differentiate those with vs. without a lifetime history of suicidal ideation and behaviors.

This study helps identify patterns of TikTok use in AYAs with suicidal ideation to optimize social media interventions for reducing suicide risk. While TikTok and other social media platforms flag keyword searches for suicide, users engaging with such content have been able to subvert restrictions with novel terms like “unaliving” (Skinner, 2021). Being able to detect behaviors associated with suicidal ideation and redirecting them to helpful content may therefore be helpful in decreasing engagement and transmission of suicide-related content on social media.