My PRIDE research project is part of my thesis, which I need to complete in order to apply to become a Clinical Psychologist someday. I hope to be able to work with young people to support them with their mental health needs.  In addition to my studies, I work with people with disabilities, and volunteer as a telephone counsellor for young people. 

I have been studying while trying to manage a healthy social media habit and noticed a lot more mental health content online over the last few years. This made me wonder whether young people/rangatahi are also seeing these posts, and what kind of messages they are receiving.  I am also interested in what young people know about mental health and mental illness, which is called mental health literacy. 

The project aims to learn how young people use social media to learn about mental health. I want to understand whether the way young people use and interact with social media impacts their mental health literacy.

In addition, I am investigating whether there are differences in mental health literacy and social media use for rainbow young people compared to their peers.