An Evaluation of the SOS (Suicide Prevention) Program

July 27, 2016 updated by: ROBERT H. ASELTINE, UConn Health

An Outcome Evaluation of the SOS Suicide Prevention Program

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the SOS suicide prevention program on help-seeking, attitudes toward depression and suicide, and suicidal behavior among high school students. Current research protocol has extended this evaluation to the Middle School version of SOS.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Three cohorts have participated in outcome evaluations of the SOS suicide prevention program to assess its effects on help-seeking, attitudes toward depression and suicide, and suicidal behavior. The first two cohorts consisted of 25 public state high schools in Massachusetts, Georgia, and Connecticut. The third cohort consisted of 9 middle schools and 10 high schools from outside of Connecticut with high proportions of military dependants.

Hypotheses:

H1: Exposure to the SOS program will be significantly associated with lower rates of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts; greater levels of help-seeking; greater knowledge of and more adaptive attitudes toward depression and suicide; and increased communication with and perceived support from peers.

H2: The reduction in suicide attempts among youths exposed to the program can be explained by increases in knowledge about depression and suicide, more favorable attitudes regarding suicide, and improved communication with and support from peers.

Methods

  1. The intervention: The SOS program was presented to students in 2 consecutive classes over a 2 day period, typically in health or social studies classes. The SOS program's teaching materials include a video and a discussion guide. The video includes dramatizations depicting the signs of suicidality and depression, recommended ways to react to someone who is depressed and suicidal, as well as interviews with real people whose lives have been touched by suicide. Students are also asked to complete the Brief Screen for Adolescent Depression (BSAD), a brief screening instrument for depression that is derived from the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children IV (Lucas et al., 2001).
  2. The sample: The first cohort involved approximately 4000 students in 9 high schools in Columbus Georgia, Hartford Connecticut, and western Massachusetts over a two-year period. The second cohort consisted ove an additional 1100 students were recruited from 16 Technical High Schools in Connecticut. A third cohort consisted of over 600 students from 9 middle schools and 10 high schools from outside of Connecticut with high proportions of military dependants.
  3. The research design: The experimental design for the evaluation was a randomized control group design with posttest only data collection. At the beginning of each school year approximately half of the classes of teachers presenting the program were randomly assigned to the treatment group, which received the SOS Prevention Program in the fall/winter of that year; the other half were assigned to the control group, which did not receive the program until the evaluation is completed.

To ascertain the effect of the program on participants' knowledge of and attitudes toward suicide and help seeking behavior, students in both the treatment and control groups were asked to complete a short questionnaire 3 months following implementation of the program. Questionnaires were anonymous. After the outcome evaluation was completed, the group of students who did not receive the program earlier in the school year received the complete SOS Program.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

6471

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Connecticut
      • Farmington, Connecticut, United States, 06030
        • UCONN Health Center

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. Attendance at school participating in study
  2. English speaking youth with parental consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

1.Youth who do not speak and read English

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: 1
receive SOS program
Behavioral: SOS program
screening and didactic programming to raise awareness of depression suicidality
Other Names:
  • Signs of Suicide

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
suicide attempts
Time Frame: 3 months
3 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
knowledge about depression/suicide
Time Frame: 3 months
3 months
attitudes about depression/suicide
Time Frame: 3 months
3 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

UConn Health

Collaborators

United States Department of Defense
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
Patterson Trust

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Robert H Aseltine, PhD, UConn Health

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

September 1, 2001

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2012

Study Completion (Actual)

June 1, 2014

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

October 12, 2006

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 12, 2006

First Posted (Estimate)

October 13, 2006

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

July 29, 2016

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 27, 2016

Last Verified

July 1, 2016

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • CMHS1255
  • SM 05 014

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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