5 - (SYM 146) Effects of SITB Recovery-focused Online Content on Suicidality, Self-injury, and Belongingness

As generations raised on the internet age, young adults are increasingly utilizing the internet to engage in online content related to their daily lives, including self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (SITBs). SITBs are a concerning mental health phenomena, occurring in 12-38% of young adults, that include the deliberate destruction of one’s own bodily tissue (Favazza & Nock, 2009). Concerns relating to online content related to SITBs have been raised as potentially perpetuating or worsening behavior, or leading to other negative outcomes (Marchant et al., 2017). At the same time, sites that host this content assert that these platforms host recovery-focused content in addition to negative content, and that users have the right to engage in a stigma-free community around shared experience ("A Statement on Recent Site Events," 2021). The current study investigates the effects of positive SITB-related content on SITB outcomes and reported belongingness using event-based ecological momentary assessment (EMA).

To date, 127 young adults (anticipated n = 140) ages 18-35 (M = 25.95, SD = 4.27) have completed a one-week EMA study. Over half (55.1%) of the sample identified as a woman, 71.7% of the sample identified as white. At baseline, participants completed the Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire and the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (Van Orden et al., 2008; Posner, 2011). During one week of EMA, participants were asked to complete a survey before and after engaging with online content related to SITBs. Before engaging with content, suicidality, suicidal ideation intensity, self-injury urges, and belongingness were assessed (Coppersmith et al., 2021; Kyron et al., 2018). Post-use surveys additionally assessed any self-injurious behavior and the type of content used since the last survey (Nesi et al., 2021). Participants classified their use, then reported the valence of the content they engaged in: “help- or recovery-focused” (positive), “pro-self-injury or pro-suicide” (negative), or “neither” (neutral).

Data collection is ongoing; to date, 525 EMA surveys have been collected from 127 participants. Of these surveys, 315 include positive online content, with 160 including positive content only. The temporal link between the use of positive SITB-related online content and feelings of suicidality, self-harm urges, and belongingness will be analyzed and presented during this symposium, and the potential for positive online content to be protective will be discussed.