Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41246992›Full record

ArticleSuicide & life-threatening behavior2025

When "Self-Harm" Means "Suicide": A Topic Modeling Study of Adolescent Online Help-Seeking for Self-Harm.

Monika Neff Lind, Afsaneh Razi, Hanneke Scholten, Madeleine J George, Munmun De Choudhury, Isabela Granic, Shalini Lal, Pamela J Wisniewski, Nicholas B Allen

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Suicide & life-threatening behavior, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Monika Neff LindDepartment of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5634-2470
Afsaneh RaziDepartment of Information Science, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Hanneke ScholtenDepartment of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Madeleine J GeorgeCommunity Health and Implementation Research, RTI International, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA.
Munmun De ChoudhurySchool of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Isabela GranicFaculty of Social Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Shalini LalSchool of Rehabilitation, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Pamela J WisniewskiInternational Computer Science Institute, Berkeley, California, USA.
Nicholas B AllenDepartment of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, USA.

Funding

Jacobs FoundationSociety for Research in Child Development
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

introductionThe 15%-20% of adolescents worldwide who engage in nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) face an increased risk of transitioning from suicidal ideation to suicide attempt. To resist NSSI urges, young people often seek peer support online. We examined adolescent help-seeking on a purpose-built online mental health peer support platform, which is a critically understudied help-seeking venue.

methodsAdolescents' help-seeking posts in the "Self Harm" category on a large online peer support platform (575,261 posts from 114,937 users) were analyzed using topic modeling. We assessed the prevalence of NSSI-related topics versus morbid/suicidal topics.

resultsOur 12-topic model produced interpretable themes. Three main findings emerged: posts included little information about the context of self-harm behavior; there was minimal evidence of pro-self-harm content in posts; and the primary topics of the posts were evenly split between NSSI-related topics and morbid/suicidal topics.

conclusionOur findings have important implications for online mental health communities: requiring users to select a narrow category for their post may limit contextual information; moderation of pro-self-harm content may reduce its prevalence; and the absence of dedicated spaces for suicidal users may funnel those users into NSSI-focused spaces, potentially increasing risk for all users.

Indexed as

Adolescent BehaviorHelp-Seeking BehaviorSelf-Injurious BehaviorSuicidal IdeationSuicideSuicide, AttemptedAdolescentFemaleHumansInternetMalePeer GroupSocial Supportadolescencehelp‐seekingonlinepeer supportself‐harmsuicide

Identifiers

PMID41246992
PMCPMC12621541

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.