There is growing evidence that negative attitudes towards persons affected by suicide (i.e. persons who experience suicidality, persons who lost a loved one to suicide), so called public suicide stigma, is harmful for suicide prevention, for example by reducing social support, inhibiting help-seeking for suicidality and increasing distress as well as suicidality among stigmatized persons. Reducing public suicide stigma could therefore be an important factor of successful suicide prevention. However, reducing public suicide stigma could also be harmful, for example by increasing attitudes that suicidal behaviour is a normal and acceptable solution for crisis situations, which could decrease help-seeking for suicidality and encourage suicidal behaviour. This project will (1) develop four interventions (contact-based vs. education based, video vs. text) hypothesized to reduce public suicide stigma, (2) determine the efficacy of the four interventions with regard to reducing public suicide stigma, (3) identify additional harmful (e.g. normalization of suicidal behaviour) and beneficial intervention effects (e.g. improved attitudes to seek help) and (4) investigate pathways explaining intervention effects.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
OTHER
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
1,800
No additional information necessary.
No additional information necessary.
No additional information necessary.
No additional information necessary.
Ulm University
Ulm, Germany
Stigma subscale of the Stigma of Suicide Scale short form (SOSS-SF)
Batterham al. (2013) The Stigma of Suicide Scale. Psychometric properties and correlates of the stigma of suicide. Crisis 34(1):13-21
Time frame: Immediately after the intervention (t1)
Stigma subscale of the Stigma of Suicide Scale short form (SOSS-SF)
Batterham al. (2013) The Stigma of Suicide Scale. Psychometric properties and correlates of the stigma of suicide. Crisis 34(1):13-21
Time frame: Two weeks after the intervention (t2)
Literacy of Suicide Scale (LOSS)
Batterham et al. (2013) Correlates of suicide stigma and suicide literacy in the community. Suicide Life Threat Behav 43(4):406-417
Time frame: Immediately after the intervention (t1); Two weeks after the intervention (t2)
Cognitions Concerning Suicide Scale (CCSS)
Cwik et al. (2017) Measuring attitudes towards suicide: Preliminary evaluation of an attitude towards suicide scale. Compr Psychiatry 72:56-65
Time frame: Immediately after the intervention (t1); Two weeks after the intervention (t2)
General help-seeking questionnaire suicidal ideation subscale (GHSQ-SI)
Wilson et al. (2005) Measuring help-seeking intentions: Properties of the General Help-Seeking Questionnaire. Canadian Journal of Counselling 39(1):15-28
Time frame: Immediately after the intervention (t1); Two weeks after the intervention (t2)
Current suicidality
One item adapted from the PHQ-9 (Kroenke et al. 2001; "Do you currently experience thoughts that you would be better off dead or of hurting yourself?" response scale from 1 (not at all) to 7 (very much)
Time frame: Immediately after the intervention (t1); Two weeks after the intervention (t2)
Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), negative affect subscale
Breyer \& Bluemke (2016) Deutsche Version der Positive and Negative Affect Schedule PANAS (GESIS Panel). ZIS - GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences
Time frame: Immediately after the intervention (t1); Two weeks after the intervention (t2)
Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-2)
Löwe et al. (2005) Detecting and monitoring depression with a two-item questionnaire (PHQ-2). Journal of Psychosomatic Research 58(2):163-171
Time frame: Two weeks after the intervention (t2)
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