Chatsafe Netherlands: Improving Safe Suicide Communication for Young People on Social Media

NCT06364332 | Recruiting

• 2 other identifiers: ChatsafeNL2023.0348
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 400
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Suicide is the leading cause of death among young people (YP) aged 10 to 25 years in the Netherlands. In addition, YP report high rates of suicidal ideation (16%). While suicidal behavior is a complex phenomenon with many factors and causes, the role of social media is becoming more prominent, especially for YP. Social media has been shown to be a source where YP can find support, but it's also a place where suicidal behavior is glorified or normalized, which can be triggering or harmful to other social media consumers. The #Chatsafe guidelines were developed by Orygen Australia to better equip young people to communicate safely about suicide on social media. These guidelines are supported by a social media campaign to make the content of the guidelines more accessible to them. The #Chatsafe intervention consists of both the guidelines and the social media campaign. A small-scale Australian feasibility study showed promising results in terms of the acceptance and safety of the campaign, and safety regarding communicating about suicide on social media platforms. Currently, in Australia it is tested to what extent these results hold up in a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) (Robinson et al., 2023). With funding from the Dutch National Agenda for Suicide Prevention, a contextualized replication study is conducted. The aim of this study is to determine whether the #Chatsafe intervention has an effect on the way in which Dutch YP communicate online about suicide.

Conditions

Suicide Prevention; Communication; Social Media

Keywords

Suicide prevention; Suicidal Ideation; Communication; Social Media

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Safe communication about suicide online

  This outcome measure was specially developed for the Chatsafe Australia study, it will be measured by the purpose-designed #Chatsafe online safety questionnaire (Robinson et al., 2023) immediately after intervention. It is based upon an adapted version of the Perceived Safety Questionnaire. It consists of 4 different subscales, for each of which a sum score will be calculated: general use, seeing content, responding to content and interacting with content on social media. Overall sum score on communicating about self-harm and suicide on social media (25 items) ranges from 25-100, where higher scores reflect more safe communication. In addition, vignettes will be used to calculate scores concerning: sharing experiences of suicide online score, responding online to someone at risk and communication online about a suicide that has occurred (range 53-265). Here, also higher scores reflect more safe communication.

  Before, immediately after intervention and at 4 week follow up

Secondary Outcomes (6)

• Confidence when communicating about suicide online

  Before, immediately after intervention and at 4 week follow up

• Willingness to intervene against suicide online

  Before, immediately after intervention and at 4 week follow up

• Self-efficacy online

  Before, immediately after intervention and at 4 week follow up

• Safety of the #ChatsafeNL materials

  Before, immediately after intervention and at 4 week follow up

• Acceptability of the #ChatsafeNL intervention

  Before, immediately after intervention and at 4 week follow up

Study Arms (2)

Intervention

EXPERIMENTAL

#Chatsafe suicide prevention content.

Behavioral: Social Media campaign

Control

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Sexual health and wellbeing content

Behavioral: Social Media campaign

Interventions

Social Media campaign BEHAVIORAL

Participants receive content three times a week; in total 24 pieces of content in 8 weeks. The content can consist of one or more photos or images with a caption (explanation in text).

Control; Intervention

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 16 Years - 25 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• age between 16-25 years,
• living in the Netherlands and speaking Dutch,
• see themselves as active social media user,
• is willing to share mobile phone number with the research team.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• 113 Suicide Prevention: lead
• Orygen: collaborator
• Mind: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

113 Suicide Prevention

Amsterdam, North Holland, 1105 BP, Netherlands

RECRUITING

Related Publications (3)

• Robinson J, La Sala L, Cooper C, Spittal M, Rice S, Lamblin M, Brown E, Nolan H, Battersby-Coulter R, Rajaram G, Thorn P, Pirkis J, May-Finlay S, Silenzio V, Skehan J, Krysinska K, Bellairs-Walsh I. Testing the Impact of the #chatsafe Intervention on Young People's Ability to Communicate Safely About Suicide on Social Media: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial. JMIR Res Protoc. 2023 Feb 17;12:e44300. doi: 10.2196/44300.

  PMID: 36800220 BACKGROUND

• La Sala L, Pirkis J, Cooper C, Hill NTM, Lamblin M, Rajaram G, Rice S, Teh Z, Thorn P, Zahan R, Robinson J. Acceptability and Potential Impact of the #chatsafe Suicide Postvention Response Among Young People Who Have Been Exposed to Suicide: Pilot Study. JMIR Hum Factors. 2023 May 19;10:e44535. doi: 10.2196/44535.

  PMID: 37204854 BACKGROUND

• La Sala L, Teh Z, Lamblin M, Rajaram G, Rice S, Hill NTM, Thorn P, Krysinska K, Robinson J. Can a social media intervention improve online communication about suicide? A feasibility study examining the acceptability and potential impact of the #chatsafe campaign. PLoS One. 2021 Jun 15;16(6):e0253278. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0253278. eCollection 2021.

  PMID: 34129610 BACKGROUND

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Suicide Prevention; Communication; Suicidal Ideation

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Suicide; Self-Injurious Behavior; Behavioral Symptoms; Behavior

Study Officials

• Saskia Mérelle, dr

  113 Suicide Prevention

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

Elke Elzinga, dr

CONTACT

020 3113883; e.elzinga@113.nl

Saskia Mérelle, dr

CONTACT

020 3113883; s.merelle@113.nl

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: INVESTIGATOR
• Masking Details: The research team will be kept blind to randomization. A safety procedure is drawn up in which a senior researcher is appointed who will be unblinded if absolutely necessary. Principally, this will not be needed, since the study psychologists are independently alerted when a subject wants to get in touch.
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Model Details: Participants are randomized to the intervention or the control group using block randomization with varying block sizes (block sizes vary from 2 to 16). The distribution key will be 1:1. The randomization schedule is computer generated by a researcher who will not be part of the analysing researchers.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: April 2, 2024
• First Posted: April 15, 2024
• Study Start: April 8, 2024
• Primary Completion: December 1, 2024
• Study Completion: March 1, 2025
• Last Updated: May 1, 2024

Record last verified: 2024-04

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

NL (1)