Testing the Competency-based Theory of Change for Suicide Risk Among Young Male Internet Users With Societal Masculinity

Testing the Competency-based Theory of Change for Suicide Risk Among Young Male Internet Users With Societal Masculinity

To propose a competency-based theory of change for reducing suicide risks among male Internet users with salient traits of societal masculinity; To test whether the theory of change using the competency-based model has additional effects on reducing self-harm and/or suicidal ideation in addition to the online social work treatment-as-usual model; To provide online social work service providers with evidence-based measures for reducing the risks of self-harm and/or suicide among young male Internet users.

This is a randomized waitlist-controlled trial of 60 participants examining the effects of a proposed competency-based model on self-harm relative to those of OSW alone. In the online survey (T0), subjects with self-harm or suicidal ideation will be invited to give informed consent, and then be randomly assigned to one of two groups: 1) OSW (control), or 2) OSW + six weekly sessions of competency-based physical training (intervention). They will be assessed at three measurement time points (T1 = one-month; T2 = three-month; and T3 = five-month from T0 at post-intervention). The intervention group is hypothesized to display a greater reduction in the primary outcomes of self-harm and suicidal ideation than the OSW group. Chi-square tests giving p <=0.05 will indicate a goodness of fit of the linear mixed model, which address random effects in the data and handles intention-to-treat (ITT).

Inclusion Criteria:

• Individuals who meet the cut-off of 1.0 on the Chinese Adult Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire (ASIQ4); Self-injury incidents in the past 12 months

Exclusion Criteria:

• Individuals with severe physical disabilities