Graduation Year

2026

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Psychology

Reader 1

Lahnna Catalino

Reader 2

Egamaria Alacam

Reader 3

Jennifer Ma

Abstract

The rise of therapy-speak on social media has introduced mental health terminology into everyday discourse among young adults, yet its psychological impacts remain unclear (Chevalier, 2024; Jain et al., 2025). The present study investigated the effects of TikTok videos containing therapy-speak on stigma toward mental illness, mental health awareness, and mental health literacy. Using a between-groups experimental design, 95 U.S. college students aged 18 to 24 were randomly assigned to view either therapy-speak TikTok content or neutral TikTok content. Participants subsequently completed three post-exposure measures: the Mental Health Literacy Scale (MHLS; O’Connor & Casey, 2015), a self-constructed Mental Health Awareness Scale (MHA), and an adapted version of the Self-Stigma of Mental Illness–Short Form (SSMIS-SF; Corrigan et al., 2012). Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) were conducted on each scale prior to hypothesis testing, followed by three independent samples t-tests. Contrary to predictions, participants in the therapy-speak condition reported significantly higher stigma toward mental illness than those in the neutral condition, t(93) = −2.14, p = .035, d = −0.44, though this difference did not survive Bonferroni correction (α = .017). As predicted, therapy-speak exposure was associated with significantly higher mental health awareness, t(93) = −3.07, p = .003, d = −0.63. No significant difference in mental health literacy was observed between conditions, t(93) = −0.83, p = .411, d = −0.17. These findings suggest that brief exposure to therapy-speak TikTok content may heighten awareness of mental health while simultaneously activating rather than reducing stigmatizing attitudes, underscoring the complex and potentially contradictory psychological effects of social media mental health discourse.

Download

Share

COinS