Tool for Sibling and Children of Someone With Suicidal Thoughts

A Tool for Siblings and Children of Someone With Suicidal Thoughts and/or Behaviors: Evaluation.

This study aims to investigate to what extent a website developed for siblings and children (16-25 years old) of someone with suicidal thoughts and/or behaviors is effective in improving perceived pressure, knowledge, attitudes, self-confidence and hopelessness. Moreover, it aims to examine how participants evaluate the website.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Suicide
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Website (www.mee-leven.be)

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 29
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Belgium
  • Ghent, Belgium, 9000
    • Flemish Centre of Expertise in Suicide Prevention, Ghent University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Siblings and children of someone who has suicidal thoughts and/or behavior
• 16-25 years old
• Have access to internet
• Speak Dutch

Exclusion Criteria:

• /

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Experimental: Website (www.mee-leven.be); Participants in this group (all participants) are asked to complete a questionnaire and then receive access to the website during three days, after which they were asked to complete another questionnaire.

Behavioral: Website (www.mee-leven.be); The tool is a website aimed siblings and children of someone who has suicidal thoughts and/or behaviors. The intended objectives of the tool are 1) to contribute to knowledge about suicide and health care options, 2) to increase perceived competences in dealing with suicidality of a family member, 3) to reduce perceived pressure and negative feelings such as hopelessness and 4) to be accessible and user-friendly. These objectives are achieved by providing the following content: 1) concerning the sibling/child themselves (primary objective) : information about the potential impact of having a suicidal family member, own needs, informal and formal (self) care, dealing with the suicidal family member, dealing with other family members 2) concerning the suicidal family member (Secondary objective): information about the suicidal process, signal recognition, how to provide support/create a safe environment for suicidal loved ones , help available for suicidal relatives

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Changes in self-efficacy: Gatekeeper Self-Efficacy Scale (Takahashi et al., 2020)	The Gatekeeper Self-Efficacy Scale is a 9-item self-report scale to be scored on a 7-point Likert scale (1= not at all to 5 = Extremely) to measure participants' self efficacy in dealing with suicidal individuals. Higher scores indicate higher self-efficacy.	Change from Baseline (before intervention) to post-test (after 3 days of access to website)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Changes in perceived pressure: Perceived pressure informal care ('Ervaren druk informele zorg', Pot et al., 1995)	The Perceived pressure informal care ('Ervaren druk informele zorg', Pot et al., 1995) scale is a 9-item self-report scale. Participants rate items to be applicable to them with the options: 'No!', 'No', 'More or less', 'Yes', 'Yes!', where 'No' and 'No!' are scored as 0 and the other options as 1. Total scores of 0-3 indicate little pressure, 4-6 moderate and 7-9 a lot.	Change from Baseline (before intervention) to post-test (after 3 days of access to website)
Changes in attitudes: 5 subscales of Attitudes Towards Suicide Scale (Rensberg & Jacobson, 2003; De Clerck et al., 2006)	The ATTS is a 37-item to be scored on a 5-point Likert scale (1= disagree completely to 5 = agree completely) to measure participants' attitudes towards suicide. The included subscales in this study are: incomprehensibility, non-communication, preventability, tabooing, preparedness to prevent	Change from Baseline (before intervention) to post-test (after 3 days of access to website)
Changes in hopelessness: Beck Hopelessness Scale (4-item version; Beck et al., 1974; Aish & Wasserman, 2001) and self-developed questionnaire	The BHS A 4-item self-report questionnaire to measure hopelessness in adolescents and adults. Each item is rated as 'true' (score = 1) or 'false' (score = 0) for them over the past week, resulting in a total score ranging from 0 to 4, with higher scores indicating higher levels of hopelessness. Self-developed questionnaire: 4-item self-report questionnaire to measure hopelessness in relation to the loved one, based on the BHS 4-item version. Each item is rated as 'true' (score = 1) or 'false' (score = 0) for them over the past week, resulting in a total score ranging from 0 to 4, with higher scores indicating higher levels of hopelessness in relation to the loved one.	Change from Baseline (before intervention) to post-test (after 3 days of access to website)
Changes in self-care and awareness	Self-developed questionnaire consisting of 5 statements to be rated on a 5-point Likert scale, with 1=strongly disagree and 5=strongly agree. Higher scores indicate higher levels of self-care and awareness.	Change from Baseline (before intervention) to post-test (after 3 days of access to website)
Evaluation of the website	18 statements about the content, structure and effect of the website to be rated on a 5-point Likert scale (1= strongly disagree, 5= strongly agree) 4 open questions: "Which part of the website benefited you the most and why?"; "Which part of the website benefited you the least and why?"; "What can be improved on the website?" "Would you like to say anything else about the website?" Participants were asked to rate the website on a scale of 1-10	post-test (after 3 days of access to website)

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Socio-demographic characteristics	age (continuous), gender (man, woman, other), previous health care (yes/no; categories 'professional healthcare provider', 'suicide prevention helpline', 'other'), needed health care (yes/no)	Baseline
Characteristics of the suicidal family member	relationship to participant (parent, sibling), previous thoughts and/or attempts (never, sometimes, regularly, n/a; as estimated by the participant), age (continuous), gender (man, woman, other)	Baseline

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University Ghent
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Gwendolyn Portzky, PhD, University Ghent

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): October 16, 2023
• Primary Completion (Actual): January 24, 2024
• Study Completion (Actual): January 29, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: October 20, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 20, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): October 25, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): February 6, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 5, 2024
• Last Verified: February 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Self-Injurious Behavior; Suicide; Suicidal Ideation
• Other Study ID Numbers: B6702023000493 - ONZ-2023-0335

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No