Triggers Online Resulting in Nonsuicidal Self-Injury (TORN)

Non-suicidal self-injury represents a major worldwide mental health concern in adolescents. This project approach aims to examine the role of social media usage in the development and maintenance of adolescent non-suicidal self-injury. This project focusses on the potential triggering effect of stimuli (words, pictures) that adolescents share in online groups related to non-suicidal self- injury. Additionally, it will study the effect of social exclusion on these trigger factors, noting that adolescents with non-suicidal self-injury are more sensitive to negative feedback from others. The team led by Oswald D. Kothgassner is recruiting 50 young people with non-suicidal self-injury and 25 healthy young people in order to get a better understanding of the triggering factors of non-suicidal self-injury in the context of social media platforms. The project consists of three studies: (1) a study using ecological momentary assessment over seven days is conducted in order to identify events, cognitions and affects in their daily lives that may lead to non-suicidal self-injury; (2) a laboratory study is set to identify triggers for non-suicidal self-injury (e.g. certain words, details in pictures) and will be analyzed by measuring eye-tracking and physiological recordings; (3) a laboratory study is conducted to predict the influence of social exclusion on trigger effects. To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate triggering effects of social media content in adolescents with non-suicidal self-injury conducting an everyday study as well as laboratory experiments. The team uses a multi- method approach including biological, behavioral and self-report measures to understand an issue that is highly relevant in clinical work.