Online Methods in Adolescent Self-Injury Research: Challenges and Recommendations

ABSTRACT

Online methods hold promise as effective research tools for adolescent psychopathology research. Such methods may be the most effective way to reach large, representative samples of adolescents and harder-to-reach populations. They also may increase adolescent disclosure of risky behaviors, reduce recruitment costs, and increase the cost and time efficiency of recruitment. Despite these advantages, researchers may be concerned about including measures assessing risky behaviors, like suicidal thoughts and behaviors and nonsuicidal self-injury, in online studies of youth. In addition, parental consent in online studies is impractical and difficult to obtain. Concerns also include potential iatrogenic effects, sample bias, and data quality issues. This review discusses the benefits and challenges for online adolescent self-injury research, proposes strategies to overcome barriers, and provides examples and recommendations for future research.

Acknowledgments

The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Science Foundation.

Additional Materials

The project titled “Online Methods in Adolescent Self-Injury Research: Challenges and Recommendations” on the Open Science Framework platform houses the supplemental materials for this paper. These materials include advertisement examples, mental health resource examples, and a how-to guide for Facebook advertising. Access the project at this link: https://osf.io/g6cha/

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Importantly, as mentioned in the previous section, research suggests that questions that assess mental illness and SITBs do not increase distress in the long-term, in both adolescents and adults. No evidence shows that such assessments prime vulnerable populations to consider suicide (see Dazzi et al., 2014 for a review; see DeCou & Schumann, 2018 for a meta-analysis). Questions about suicide and self-harm do not increase these thoughts or behaviors in randomized control trials (Gould et al., 2005; Harris & Goh, 2017). Rather, evidence suggests that such questions may reduce distress and suicidal thoughts among at-risk individuals (Dazzi et al., 2014; Gould et al., 2005; Linehan et al., 2006).

Additional information

Funding

Shirley B. Wang is supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. DGE-1745303.