Rassy Jessica, Mathieu Luc, Michaud Cécile, Monday Tim, Raymond Sylvie, Bonin Jean-Pierre
Professeure à l'École des sciences infirmières de l'Université de Sherbrooke, Longueuil, Canada.
Professeur à l'École des sciences infirmières de l'Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Canada.
Sante Ment Que. 2019 Spring;44(1):31-46.
The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for help-seeking is becoming more and more common for adolescents at risk of suicide. Objectives The aim of this current study was to better understand the help-seeking process of adolescents at risk for suicide. Methods A grounded theory methodology was used to describe the experience of adolescents at risk of suicide and gain a deeper understanding of their ICT help-seeking process. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews, an ICT help-seeking questionnaire and live observations of ICT help-seeking strategies by the adolescents of this study. Theoretical saturation was reached with a total of 15 adolescents, aged 13 to 17, at risk of suicide. Results The grounded theory that emerged gravitated towards the fact that adolescents chose to virtually deal with emotional drowning. A specific context allowed this central category to emerge and included the adolescents' state, their personal triggers, their social environment as well as their desire to use ICT. The ICT strategies used by the adolescents to deal with their emotional drowning were to distract themselves, to get informed, to reveal themselves or to help others. Adolescents in this study used different ways to distract themselves with ICT. This included reading texts, watching online videos, listening to music and playing games. They also increased their literacy by informing themselves on suicide and mental health problems. However, many adolescents also searched for ways to help them commit suicide. Although most of the results were suicide prevention related, the keywords used by the adolescents remain preoccupying. Revealing their thoughts and their feelings about their emotional state seemed to be easier through ICT. They sometimes chose to reveal themselves anonymously but most of the time, they revealed themselves to use ICT to friends they already had in real life. Also, helping friends through ICT seemed to be very rewarding and helpful to the adolescents of our study even when they were in a state of emotional drowning. These different strategies to virtually deal with their emotional drowning hindered many different consequences which were to grow emotionally, to get help, to get temporary relief, to stay indifferent, to worsen their suicidal thoughts or to attempt suicide. Conclusion Although some negative consequences of ICT emerge from this study, a great deal of the consequences was positive and helpful for these adolescents. Overall, this study shows that ICT offer great opportunities for adolescent suicide prevention. Implications for practice, training and research are further discussed.
对于有自杀风险的青少年而言，利用信息通信技术（ICT）寻求帮助正变得越来越普遍。目的本研究的目的是更好地理解有自杀风险青少年的求助过程。方法采用扎根理论方法来描述有自杀风险青少年的经历，并更深入地了解他们利用ICT求助的过程。通过半结构化访谈、一份ICT求助问卷以及对本研究中青少年ICT求助策略的现场观察来收集数据。对15名年龄在13至17岁、有自杀风险的青少年进行访谈后达到了理论饱和。结果得出的扎根理论倾向于青少年选择通过虚拟方式应对情绪困扰这一事实。一个特定的背景使得这个核心类别得以出现，其中包括青少年的状态、个人触发因素、社会环境以及他们使用ICT的意愿。青少年用来应对情绪困扰的ICT策略包括分散注意力、获取信息、表露自己或帮助他人。本研究中的青少年使用不同方式通过ICT分散自己的注意力。这包括阅读文本、观看在线视频、听音乐和玩游戏。他们还通过了解自杀和心理健康问题来提高自身知识水平。然而，许多青少年也在寻找帮助他们自杀的方法。尽管大多数结果与自杀预防相关，但青少年使用的关键词仍令人担忧。通过ICT表露他们对自身情绪状态的想法和感受似乎更容易。他们有时选择匿名表露自己，但大多数时候，他们是向现实生活中已有的朋友通过ICT表露自己。此外，对本研究中的青少年来说，通过ICT帮助朋友似乎非常有意义且有帮助，即便他们正处于情绪困扰状态。这些通过虚拟方式应对情绪困扰的不同策略产生了许多不同的后果，包括情绪成长、获得帮助、得到暂时缓解、保持冷漠、加重自杀念头或试图自杀。结论尽管本研究中出现了ICT的一些负面后果，但大量后果是积极且对这些青少年有帮助的。总体而言，本研究表明ICT为青少年自杀预防提供了巨大机遇。进一步讨论了对实践、培训和研究的启示。
