Kruzan Kaylee Payne, Whitlock Janis, Bazarova Natalya N
Center for Behavioral Intervention Technologies, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, United States.
Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States.
JMIR Ment Health. 2021 Jan 28;8(1):e21854. doi: 10.2196/21854.
Many individuals who self-injure seek support and information through online communities and mobile peer-support apps. Although researchers have identified risks and benefits of participation, empirical work linking participation in these web-based spaces to self-injury behaviors and thoughts is limited.
This study aims to investigate the relationship between behavioral and linguistic traces on a mobile peer support app and self-injury outcomes.
Natural use data and web-based surveys (N=697) assessing self-injury outcomes were collected from 268 users (aged 13-38 years; median 19; 149/268, 55.6% female) of a mobile peer-support app for 4 months. Participants were identified as having posted self-injury content using an internal classifier. Natural log data was used to predict self-injury outcomes in a series of multilevel logistic and linear regressions.
Greater engagement on a mobile peer-support app was associated with a decreased likelihood of self-injury thoughts (odds ratio [OR] 0.25, 95% CI 0.09-0.73) and fewer intentions to self-injure (b=-0.37, SE 0.09), whereas posting triggering content was associated with an increased likelihood of engaging in behaviors (OR 5.37, 95% CI 1.25-23.05) and having self-injury thoughts (OR 17.87, 95% CI 1.64-194.15). Moreover, viewing triggering content was related to both a greater ability to resist (b=1.39, SE 0.66) and a greater intention to self-injure (b=1.50, SE 0.06).
To our knowledge, this is the first study to connect naturally occurring log data to survey data assessing self-injury outcomes over time. This work provides empirical support for the relationship between participation in online forums and self-injury outcomes, and it articulates mechanisms contributing to this relationship.
许多自我伤害者通过在线社区和移动同伴支持应用程序寻求支持和信息。尽管研究人员已经确定了参与其中的风险和益处，但将参与这些基于网络的空间与自我伤害行为和想法联系起来的实证研究有限。
本研究旨在调查移动同伴支持应用程序上的行为和语言痕迹与自我伤害结果之间的关系。
从一款移动同伴支持应用程序的268名用户（年龄在13 - 38岁之间；中位数为19岁；149/268，55.6%为女性）收集了4个月的自然使用数据和评估自我伤害结果的网络调查（N = 697）。使用内部分类器将参与者识别为发布了自我伤害内容的人。自然日志数据用于在一系列多级逻辑回归和线性回归中预测自我伤害结果。
在移动同伴支持应用程序上的更多参与与自我伤害想法的可能性降低相关（优势比[OR] 0.25，95%置信区间0.09 - 0.73）以及自我伤害意图减少（b = -0.37，标准误0.09），而发布触发内容与参与行为的可能性增加（OR 5.37，95%置信区间1.25 - 23.05）和有自我伤害想法相关（OR 17.87，95%置信区间1.64 - 194.15）。此外，查看触发内容与更强的抵抗能力（b = 1.39，标准误0.66）和更大的自我伤害意图（b = 1.50，标准误0.06）都有关。
据我们所知，这是第一项将自然产生的日志数据与随时间评估自我伤害结果的调查数据联系起来的研究。这项工作为参与在线论坛与自我伤害结果之间的关系提供了实证支持，并阐明了促成这种关系的机制。
