The role of #chatsafe guide to support parent and carer conversations

What’s the issue?

Suicide and self-harm in young people is rising globally. The role of social media is one factor which may play a role in this increased rate of suicide and self-harm. Exposure to self-harm- or suicide-related content online is also thought to play a role in suicide contagion or imitative behaviours for some young people.¹

Parents and carers conversations with young people about the topics of suicide and self-harm are important to provide guidance and support to young people to respond appropriately to such content. Discussion of these topics can be sensitive and challenging for many adults.

Researchers therefore wanted to address this concern by increasing the confidence and literacy of adults in 15 countries to be able to communicate with young people about their safety and exposure to suicide and self-harm content online through the contextualisation of the well utilised Australian #chatsafe Guide for Parents and Carers.

What was done?

Researchers conducted a series of seven online focus groups with parents, carers and suicide prevention professionals in 15 countries. The qualitative study aimed to understand the focus group participants to explore what concerns they had about youth self-harm, suicide and social media use to what extent the #chatsafe Guide for Parents and Carers would be helpful to their respective communities.

The online interviews went for 60-90 minutes in length, and were facilitated by a researcher to support structured discussion. Discussion within the focus groups was coded and analysed by the researchers against key questions areas.

What was found?

40 people participated in the focus groups. 25 were female and 15 were male. Researchers found that many adults felt they lacked the knowledge to talk about suicide and self-harm. Barriers for communicating about suicide and self-harm with young people included:

• Lack of knowledge about the best way to communicate
• Lack of confidence to communicate
• Fear of talking about these topics in case they place young people at increased risk of suicide and self-harm
• Knowing that young people have less stigma and fear to talk about suicide and self-harm than adults
• Feeling less competent on social media than young people
• Stigma and cultural beliefs
• Parent/carer relationships with young people.

Some believed that discussion about self-harm and suicide online in prevention-based context was good for young people. Most adults however felt that suicide and self-harm related content online and on social media was unsafe.

Although many participants acknowledged the important role of parents and carers in being the first point of contact for topics impacting young people, they also felt that parents and carers cannot provide effective support alone.

Parents and carers identified a range of information in the guidelines they felt was supportive, such as information about suicide and self-harm related games and hoaxes and how to talk about these concerns with young people.

Parents and carers felt it was important for the guidelines to be available worldwide and suggested that interactive content rather than text heavy resources would support uptake of the guidelines. A mixture of dissemination methods for the guidelines were suggested which included using online and hard copy formats.

Cultural beliefs and backgrounds, and level of mental health literacy of parents and carers was a large factor in the usefulness of the #chatsafe Guide for Parents and Carers. Parents and carers from high income countries tended to have a foundation level of mental health literacy and basic experiencing in discussing mental health with others and with young people. These parents and carers felt the guidelines would benefit by extending information on specific mental health concerns and situations to support their conversations.

Parents and carers from low-income countries, or from cultural backgrounds where mental health is stigmatised or not widely discussed, felt the guidelines would benefit from basic mental health literacy information and ‘conversation starter’ examples to help develop relationships for open communication with young people. This suggests that a global approach to guidelines may need to include multiple versions for different settings and countries.

Why are the findings important?

This was the first study to explore the specific concerns held by parents, carers and suicide prevention professionals about social media and suicide-related communication and conversations with young people.

The findings show that guidelines may support parents and carers to improve their mental health literacy and confidence to communicate with young people about suicide and self-harm related content online.

#chatsafe Guide for Parents and Carers may benefit parents and carers globally, if the guidelines include information for conversations between adults and young people reflecting the needs of specific cultures, religions, mental health literacy levels, and pre-existing relationships between young people and their parents or carers.