Nearly One in Five Saudi Adults Show TikTok Addiction, Linked to Anxiety, Depression and ADHD Symptoms

Roughly one in five adults in Saudi Arabia screened positive for TikTok addiction in a new cross-sectional study, and those with addiction symptoms reported markedly higher rates of anxiety, depression and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms. The research, published in BMC Psychology, drew on an online survey of 411 adults and used validated screening instruments for each condition. The authors note that TikTok use is increasing rapidly and may affect mental health, and their results point to a substantial overlap between problematic use of the short-video platform and common mental health symptoms in this sample.

The team measured TikTok addiction with the TikTok Addiction Test (TAT), anxiety with the seven-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7), depression with the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), and ADHD symptoms with the five-item Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS-5). Overall, 18.5 percent of participants met the study’s threshold for TikTok addiction. The sample skewed young and educated: 67.9 percent of respondents were female and 74.4 percent were university graduates. Addiction was significantly more common among adults aged 18 to 25 than in older age groups, a difference that remained statistically significant at p = 0.008.

The central finding concerned the mental health associations. After adjusting for gender, age and educational level in multivariate logistic regression models, TikTok addiction was significantly associated with anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms and ADHD symptoms, each at p < 0.001. In other words, participants who screened positive for problematic TikTok use were far more likely to also screen positive for each of the three conditions, even once basic demographic differences between users were taken into account. The researchers emphasize that these are cross-sectional associations: the survey captured a single point in time and cannot establish whether excessive TikTok use contributes to anxiety, depression or attentional difficulties, whether people with those symptoms turn to the platform more intensively, or whether both patterns stem from shared underlying factors.

The study’s design carries further limitations that shape how the results should be read. All measures were self-reported screening tools rather than clinical diagnoses, so the figures describe symptom levels on validated questionnaires, not confirmed diagnoses of addiction, anxiety disorders, major depression or ADHD. Because the data were collected at one time point from a single survey, the findings describe the study population surveyed rather than establishing causal pathways, and the observed associations could reflect any of several directions of influence. The authors frame their work as an estimate of prevalence and association among adults in Saudi Arabia, not a demonstration that TikTok causes mental health problems.

Within those constraints, the study adds quantitative detail to the picture of problematic short-video use in this population. The 18.5 percent prevalence figure, the concentration of addiction symptoms among 18-to-25-year-olds, and the strong adjusted associations with anxiety, depression and ADHD symptoms together suggest that problematic TikTok use is not a marginal behavior in this sample but a pattern affecting nearly one in five surveyed adults, one that clusters with common mental health symptoms. The researchers recommend raising awareness about healthy and safe social media use, particularly among young adults who showed the highest addiction levels in this survey. For now, the findings stand as a measured snapshot: a cross-sectional association between a specific platform and three common symptom domains in a Middle Eastern adult sample, documented with validated screening scales and adjusted demographic comparisons.

Subject of Research: Prevalence of tiktok addiction and its association with anxiety, depression, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms among adults in Saudi Arabia: a cross-sectional study

Article Title: Prevalence of tiktok addiction and its association with anxiety, depression, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms among adults in Saudi Arabia: a cross-sectional study

Article References: Alotaibi, W. A., Almalki, A. G., Filfilan, N. N., Alosaimi, A. A., Aljurayyied, S. M., Aldehsenah, M. O., Ghamdi, M. G. A., Alkhuwaildy, H. S., Algifari, F. N., & Ghamdi, R. F. A. (2026). Prevalence of tiktok addiction and its association with anxiety, depression, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms among adults in Saudi Arabia: a cross-sectional study. BMC Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-026-05498-y

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s40359-026-05498-y

Keywords: Prevalence, tiktok, addiction, association, anxiety, depression, attention-deficit, hyperactivity, disorder, symptoms, adults, Saudi