Neurocognitive Responses to Social Threat: Links to Day-to-day Connectedness and Suicidality in Adolescent Girls
University of Pittsburgh
Summary
In recent years, adolescents are having higher rates of emotional health problems, such as suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs). The goal of this study is to learn about how teens' attention to different types of information relates to their real-world relationships and their emotional health. The investigators hope this study will help understand why some teens go on to have suicidal thoughts and behaviors and other teens do not. This information will help investigators learn how to improve emotional health in teens and reduce teen suicides. Participants will be 100 female adolescents (ages 12-17) at high risk for STBs who will complete a series of assessments over the course of 6 months. Assessments include a baseline clinical interview, a visit to examine neural responses during a computer tasks, daily smartphone surveys about social experiences and social connectedness, and follow up questionnaires assessing STBs. Participants will also be asked to donate their text messages during the month that they complete smartphone surveys. The research procedures will help investigators learn how adolescents react to different types of social situations. Investigators want to see if these reactions affect: 1. How connected adolescents feel to others in their daily lives 2. Adolescents' longer-term risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs) Participants will be asked to: * Complete a 10-15 minute screening call to determine eligibility for the study * Complete one 3 hour virtual (or in-person) interview consisting of a clinical assessment and questionnaires. * Complete a 2.5-hour in person visit to complete computer tasks while record brain signals are recorded * Complete \~5 minute smartphone surveys three times a day for 30 days, asking about their daily social experiences and their mood and feelings. * Provide investigators with retrospective access to their text/direct messages from the month the participant was completing the smartphone surveys. * Complete online follow-up questionnaires at 3 and 6 months
Description
There is no assignment to conditions. All participants will receive the same intervention, which is the completion of an experimental task in which participants are asked to remember the identities of actors displaying happy, sad, angry, and neutral expressions and tested on their memory. The study is designed to evaluate the effect of sustained neurocognitive responsivity to social threat on the participants' social connectedness and suicidality. This study includes 1) a baseline clinical interview, 2) a laboratory-based EEG assessment (which includes the experimental task described above),…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 12–17 years
- Sex
- Female
- Healthy volunteers
- No
Inclusion Criteria: * Between ages 12-17 * Reported recurrent suicidal thoughts and behaviors and/or non-suicidal self-injury within the past year. * Medically and neurologically healthy, including no evidence of intellectual disability or serious cognitive impairment that would interfere with task performance * Assigned female at birth * Willing and able to give informed assent * Own an iPhone Exclusion Criteria: * Unable to read or speak English or cognitive impairment preventing ability to complete assessments * Lifetime presence of a neurological or serious medical condition * Lifetime…
Interventions
- BehavioralSocial threat
EEG Visit: Participants will be presented with pictures of female actors with emotional expressions. They will be asked to remember the identities of actors displaying happy, sad, angry, and neutral expressions and tested on their memory. This task examines participants' internal attention to facial cues of emotion while asking them to remember the identities of actors displaying emotional expressions. EMA Over 30 days, participants will be asked to be report on their social experiences and suicidal thoughts and behaviors three times a day.
Location
- University of PittsburghPittsburgh, Pennsylvania