Digital Mental Health

The internet, including digital social media, is a place where people communicate about suicide risk and other mental health concerns. We hope to better understand how this type of online communication affects people, and whether we can leverage digital social media as a tool to help people who are suffering. We are especially interested in these social technologies to help us develop low-burden, accessible interventions that can reduce suicide risk for diverse groups of people.

Sample Publications:

Franz, P., Mou, D., Kessler, D., Stubbing, J., Jaroszewski, A., Ray, S., Cao, V., Bachman, S., Schuster, S., Grupensparger, D., Alpert, J., Alpert, J., Porath, M., & Nock, M. (2022). Digital narrative bibliotherapy as a scalable intervention for suicidal thoughts: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 90(8), 626-637. https://doi.org/10.1037/ccp0000752

Weinstein, E., Kleiman, E. Franz, P., Nash, C., Buonopane, R., Joyce, V. & Nock. M. (2021). Digital technology use among suicidal adolescent inpatients: A qualitative study of risks and opportunities. Journal of Adolescence, 87, 63-73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2020.12.003 

Franz, P., Nook, E., Mair, P., & Nock, M. (2020). Using topic modeling to detect and describe self-injurious and related content on a large-scale digital platform. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 50(1), 5-18. https://doi.org/10.1111/sltb.12569