Relations Between Interpersonal Hopelessness and Help-Seeking Intentions and Behaviors in Suicidal Individuals.

Background: Due to an increasing suicide rate, risk factors for suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs) are an important target for research. Furthermore, individuals experiencing STBs often do not seek help. This highlights the need to assess factors that are associated with help-seeking intentions and behaviors. Aim: The current study examines the role of interpersonal hopelessness in help-seeking intentions and behaviors in suicidal individuals. Method: This was a cross-sectional study. A total of 239 adults (Mage = 32; 57.7% male; 67.8% Caucasian) completed online measures via Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Bivariate analyses were conducted to assess if higher levels of interpersonal hopelessness were associated with lower levels of help-seeking intentions and behaviors in individuals experiencing STBs within the previous 6 months. To distinguish interpersonal hopelessness from other variables that may affect help-seeking, social anxiety, interpersonal problems, general hopelessness, and perceived barriers to treatment were also examined using hierarchical regression. Results: Results showed that interpersonal hopelessness was significantly positively correlated with help-seeking intentions and behaviors. The proportion of variance in help-seeking intentions and behaviors accounted for by interpersonal hopelessness was negligible. Limitations: The data were self-reported and collected retrospectively making them susceptible to biases. Although an important first step, the cross-sectional design also limits examination of temporal or causal relationships between study variables. Furthermore, the use of an MTurk sample introduces additional limitations, as well as the limited psychometric evaluation of two measures. Conclusion: Results indicate that although interpersonal hopelessness may be an important factor in suicide risk, it may not play a compelling role in help-seeking behaviors.

Conducting Exposure-Based Groups via Telehealth for Adolescents and Young Adults With Social Anxiety Disorder.

The rapid spread of COVID-19 and subsequent social distancing measures posed unprecedented challenges in providing mental health care and a swift transition of services to telehealth platforms. Social distancing measures create unique concerns for young people with social anxiety disorder who already struggle with social connection and isolation; therefore, the continuation of care via telehealth platforms is especially important for this population. To date, there is little literature regarding use of telehealth groups for this population and the current commentary aims to fill in this gap in the literature while also providing general guidelines for telehealth groups. The commentary discusses the delivery of an exposure-based cognitive behavioral therapy group for adolescents and young adults via telehealth and provides considerations, challenges, and benefits of conducting a group through a telehealth platform. In conjunction with clinically relevant examples and in-depth exposure discussions, we aim to provide guidance for youth-focused practitioners who are considering conducting groups in a telehealth format for a range of presentations.

Registered report: Initial development and validation of the eating disorders safety behavior scale.

Anxiety and eating disorders (EDs) often co-occur, prompting calls to explore anxiety-related maintenance processes in ED samples. Safety behaviors, which function to prevent a feared outcome from occurring or to reduce anxiety associated with a feared stimulus, are observed across anxiety disorders and, along with overt avoidance behaviors, are an important target in treatment. Data suggest that individuals with EDs also engage in safety behaviors. However, no existing assessments provide a comprehensive measure of eating-disorder-specific overt avoidance and safety behaviors. The goal of this Stage 1 Registered Report is to develop a comprehensive self-report measure of ED-specific safety behaviors. In Study 1, we will recruit 50 women with EDs to complete the scale and provide feedback on the response scale. Feedback from these participants will be used to refine the measure. In Study 2, we will evaluate the psychometric properties of the measure in a large sample of women with EDs (n dependent on the size of measurement) and a community sample without current or a history of ED symptoms. We will explore the measure factor structure, known-groups validity by comparing scores from women with EDs to healthy controls, internal consistency, and convergent and divergent validity with other psychological instruments.

Accounting for Diversity in Suicide Research: Sampling and Sample Reporting Practices in the United States.

Research on suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STB) has identified many risk factors, but whether these findings generalize to diverse populations remains unclear. We review longitudinal studies on STB risk factors over the past 50 years in the United States and evaluate the methodological practices of sampling and reporting sample characteristics. We found that articles frequently reported participant age and sex, less frequently reported participant race and ethnicity, and rarely reported participant veteran status or lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender status. Sample reporting practices modestly and inconsistently improved over time. Finally, articles predominantly featured White, non-Hispanic, young adult samples.