Exploring Emerging Adults’ Health Information Practices with AI through a Cognitive Authority Lens

Key Points

Emerging adults' trust in health information sources derived from AI impacts their well-being significantly.
37% of teens face mental health issues due to factors like social media, highlighting an urgent need for reliable information sources.
Observational interviews guided by cognitive authority help reveal how emerging adults assess AI-related health information credibility.
Insights from this research could inform strategies for enhancing access to trustworthy health information targeted at this demographic.

Abstract

ABSTRACT The PEW Research reports that after the COVID pandemic around 37% of teens have mental health issues (Schaeffer, 2025) and almost 50% of teens attribute this to social media (Park, 2025). Initial explorations among emerging adults (Hochberg Lareau, 2021) of selected participants, I shall use selective coding (Charmaz, 2014) to examine how concepts of cognitive authority can help to inform information behavior and practices of emerging adults. This research is conducted through a cognitive authority lens (Wilson, 1983; Rieh & Belkin, 1998) with the hope that an understanding of the relationships between emerging adults and health information sources may provide insights into better strategies to provide access to trustworthy and credible health information.

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