Informed Consent

Study Title: Online social media intervention for suicide and non-suicidal self-injury.

Researcher: Matthew Nock

Version Date: 2017-12-08

Participation is voluntary

Your participation in this study is completely voluntary, and you may refuse to participate or withdraw from the study at any time without penalty. You may withdraw by sending an email to the research team (contact information below) stating that you no longer wish to participate. You also may choose skip any questions that make you uncomfortable.

What is the purpose of this research?

The purpose of this research is to try to find the best way to figure out which people on social media may be upset, hurting themselves, or thinking about suicide and also the best way to try to help using the same social media site.

How long will I take part in this research?

Initial participation in the study will take 2-3 minutes of your time.

You may be chosen to participate again. Participation in the next phase of the study will take only a few minutes of your time each day (may take 10 minutes on your first day and then less than 5 minutes each following day). The total length of the study depends on how long you remain on TalkLife; however, you can stop participation in this study at any time.

What can I expect if I take part in this research?

If you decide to participate in this study, there are 3 possible phases:

What are the risks and possible discomforts?

We do not anticipate significant risks associated with participating in this study. There is a risk that you might feel upset when responding to personal questions or participating in one of the interventions. You have the option to skip any questions you find uncomfortable or do not wish to answer at any time. We do not anticipate that these feelings will last for more than a few minutes, but if you experience more distress than you are comfortable with, please let us know. Additionally, while you answer questions, we may learn that you are at immediate risk of harm. If this happens, we will take steps to protect you from harm. This may involve doing things such as encouraging you to contact emergency services. Note: TalkLife already takes several steps to keep you safe and these will continue throughout the study. Please see the following link to review TalkLife’s pre-existing procedures for increasing your safety: http://talklife.co/safeguarding.

It is also possible that information about your psychological state could be exposed if there were a hack or breach in the confidentiality of data collected. We will make every attempt to maintain participant confidentiality.

Are there any benefits from being in this research study?

There is no guarantee of direct benefit to you in this study. However, through taking part in this study, there is a possibility of direct benefit to you from: (1) extra monitoring of suicidal and non-suicidal thoughts and behaviors while enrolled in the study, and (2) therapeutic effect of novel social media interventions.

Additionally, the knowledge gained from this research will hopefully help other people in the future. Your participation will result in greater knowledge about how social media interventions may be used to decrease suicidal/non-suicidal feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. This understanding will be important in helping individuals who think about or act in a manner to hurt themselves and/or end their own lives.

If I take part in this research, how will my privacy be protected? What happens to the information you collect?

Your participation in this study will remain confidential, and your identity will not be stored with your data. Your responses will be assigned a code number, and the list connecting your username and IP address with this number will be kept securely by the research team and will not be shared with anyone outside of our team. De-identified research data will be kept indefinitely for the purposes of future analyses.

To Contact the researcher: If you have questions about this research, please contact Dr. Matthew K. Nock, Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, via phone (617-496-4484) or via email (nock@wjh.harvard.edu).

This research has been reviewed by the Committee on the Use of Human Subjects in Research at Harvard University. They can be reached at 617-496-2847, Smith Campus Center, 1350 Massachusetts Avenue, Suite 935, Cambridge, MA 02138, or cuhs@harvard.edu for any of the following:

Statement of Consent

The nature and purpose of this research was sufficiently explained and I agree to participate in this study. I understand that I am free to withdraw at any time without incurring any penalty.