Digital Mental Health Intervention for Adolescents with Nonsuicidal Self-injury

This study focuses on creating and testing a new digital mental health tool for teenagers aged 14 to 18 who engage in nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI). It targets adolescents not currently in treatment and aims to provide them with psychoeducation and skills through an interactive digital platform. This tool is important because it could offer a new way to support young people struggling with self-injury, helping them learn new skills and potentially reducing the frequency and severity of their self-injury behaviors. The study addresses a significant need for accessible mental health resources for adolescents who might not seek traditional forms of treatment. Participants in the study are randomly assigned to one of two groups: one group receives the digital mental health intervention, while the other receives a psychoeducational control over eight weeks. The digital intervention includes engaging activities and interactive conversations aimed at teaching coping skills. Researchers will measure the success of this study by looking at how often and how severely participants engage in self-injury, as well as their willingness to seek help. The study also evaluates how acceptable and appropriate participants find the intervention. Participants must have access to a smartphone, be proficient in English, and cannot have severe mental health conditions or be at high risk of suicide. They are allowed to seek other treatments once they join the study.