Representations and impact of suicide-related websites

There is a considerable amount of scientific literature which investigates the associations of suicide portrayals in the more traditional mass media like film and newspapers with suicide rates but little is known about the current representations and about the effects German-speaking suicide-related websites. In the light of the increasing relevance of the internet for the search for and exchange about health-related information, a specific focus on this media type is warranted. The project focuses on three selected aspects concerning the representations and effects of suicide-related websites which are currently of high priority for public health sciences. The first project part will investigate the question which information an individual is most likely to find when searching the German- speaking internet with the most frequently used search engines for suicide-related information. A qualitative content analysis will be used to identify the quality of content characteristics based on current media recommendations for the reporting on suicide. In the second part of the project, different types of suicide forums where individuals exchange suicide-related thoughts will be identified. The postings in a `pro-life` suicide forum and a `pro-suicide` forum will be analyzed with regard to the emerging themes in postings and with regard to parameters indicating suicidality using qualitative and linguistic content analysis. Changes of themes and suicidality over the time period of posting activity will be assessed and compared for `pro-suicide` forums and `pro- life` suicide forums. In the third part of the project, the currently available German-speaking suicide-educative websites will be analyzed with regard to the quality of information provided as indicated by currently used recommendations for the reporting on suicide and with regard to structural website characteristics. A laboratory experiment will be conducted to investigate the short-term and long-term impact of exposure to different types of educative websites on the readers` well-being, knowledge about suicidality, and attitude towards suicide. Furthermore, the influence of individual characteristics of the readers` personality and preferred mode of reception as well as of content-related and structural website characteristics on the effects of the websites will be examined. This part of the study will be conducted using questionnaires and qualitative interviews. The results of the proposed project have implications not only for public health but also for communication sciences, media studies, and sociology. It will allow for a better understanding of the contents and the functions as well as possible effects of `pro-life` and `pro-suicide` suicide forums. Furthermore, it will provide insight into the question which website content and structure is most appropriate to provide tailor-made education to different types of individuals. These questions are of high relevance for currently ongoing suicide prevention campaigns.

Surfing for suicide methods and help: the content of websites retrieved with search engines in Austria and the United States. Because more and more people are using the internet to search for health-related information which may include information regarding suicide, the quality of the information retrieved is an essential concern for internet users and for public health. Our analyses show that there is overall more protective information (e.g., contact details of a support service) than information that could harm users (e.g., details of suicide method) when searching the net for suicide. But the quality of information clearly depends upon the specific search terms used. Searches with method-related search terms (e.g., how to hang yourself) are likely used by suicidal individuals and are therefore of great importance, but yield websites with more harmful and less protective characteristics than searches using the more neutral term suicide, and these websites are often better ranked than websites with more protective information. These findings demonstrate that the visibility of preventive web contents needs improvement for method-related web searches, and we provide several recommendations. Predictors of Psychological Improvement on Non-Professional Suicide Message Boards: Content Analysis. Non-professional suicide message boards are of high relevance suicidal individuals often communicate their suicidality on these boards, which differ with regard to their suicide-permissive attitude, and little is known about what responses they receive from other users. Abusive users on these boards may sometimes trigger suicidal behavior, but users may also get help from other users. Our results show that several communicative strategies are associated with potential psychological improvement in primary posters by the end of the thread, most importantly these were an explicit affirmation of constructive intent by respondents, an explicit discouragement of destructive intent, and also constructive advices, as well as expression of sympathy toward the poster. These findings can serve to start preventive action in these settings that have long been neglected by health professionals. Impact of Educative Suicide Prevention Websites on Risk Factors for Suicide Suicide prevention organizations often use websites to educate the public, but related evaluations are scarce. Our findings indicate that even short-term exposure to any of three educative websites resulted in a sustained increase in suicide-related knowledge, and importantly, there was also a sustained reduction of suicidal ideation among participants with increased vulnerability to suicide. These findings of this indicate that educative components of professional suicide prevention service providers seem to have a sustainable positive impact and are relevant to suicide prevention.