IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i6p3289-d522054.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“Smartphone Apps Are Cool, But Do They Help Me?”: A Qualitative Interview Study of Adolescents’ Perspectives on Using Smartphone Interventions to Manage Nonsuicidal Self-Injury

Author

Listed:
  • Anja Čuš

    (Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria)

  • Julian Edbrooke-Childs

    (Evidence-Based Practice Unit, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
    Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, London N1 9JH, UK)

  • Susanne Ohmann

    (Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria)

  • Paul L. Plener

    (Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria
    Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Ulm University, 89081 Ulm, Germany)

  • Türkan Akkaya-Kalayci

    (Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria)

Abstract

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a major mental health problem associated with negative psychosocial outcomes and it most often starts in early adolescence. Despite this, adolescents are rarely involved in informing the development of interventions designed to address their mental health problems. This study aimed to (1) assess adolescents’ needs and preferences about future interventions that are delivered through smartphones and (2) develop a framework with implications for designing engaging digital mental health interventions. Fifteen adolescent girls, aged 12–18 years, who met diagnostic criteria for a current NSSI disorder and were in contact with mental health services, participated in semi-structured interviews. Following a reflexive thematic analysis approach, this study identified two main themes: (1) Experiences of NSSI (depicts the needs of young people related to their everyday experiences of managing NSSI) and (2) App in Context (portrays preferences of young people about smartphone interventions and reflects adolescents’ views on how technology itself can improve or hinder engaging with these interventions). Adolescent patients expressed interest in using smartphone mental health interventions if they recognize them as helpful, relevant for their life situation and easy to use. The developed framework suggests that digital mental health interventions are embedded in three contexts (i.e., person using the intervention, mental health condition, and technology-related factors) which together need to inform the development of engaging digital resources. To achieve this, the cooperation among people with lived experience, mental health experts, and human computer interaction professionals is vital.

Suggested Citation

  • Anja Čuš & Julian Edbrooke-Childs & Susanne Ohmann & Paul L. Plener & Türkan Akkaya-Kalayci, 2021. "“Smartphone Apps Are Cool, But Do They Help Me?”: A Qualitative Interview Study of Adolescents’ Perspectives on Using Smartphone Interventions to Manage Nonsuicidal Self-Injury," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-15, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:6:p:3289-:d:522054
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/6/3289/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/6/3289/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Emma Nielsen & Kapil Sayal & Ellen Townsend, 2017. "Functional Coping Dynamics and Experiential Avoidance in a Community Sample with No Self-Injury vs. Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Only vs. Those with Both Non-Suicidal Self-Injury and Suicidal Behaviour," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-12, May.
    2. Candice Odgers, 2018. "Smartphones are bad for some teens, not all," Nature, Nature, vol. 554(7693), pages 432-434, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kaylee Payne Kruzan & Madhu Reddy & Jason J. Washburn & David C. Mohr, 2022. "Developing a Mobile App for Young Adults with Nonsuicidal Self-Injury: A Prototype Feedback Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-23, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Edyta Łuszczki & Anna Bartosiewicz & Gabriel Bobula & Maciej Kuchciak & Paweł Jagielski & Łukasz Oleksy & Artur Stolarczyk & Katarzyna Dereń, 2021. "New Media Development, Sleep and Lifestyle in Children and Adolescents," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-13, February.
    2. Xiao, ZhiMin, 2017. "Of young people and Internet cafés," SocArXiv 2d8rz, Center for Open Science.
    3. Tie Hua Zhou & Gong Liang Hu & Ling Wang, 2019. "Psychological Disorder Identifying Method Based on Emotion Perception over Social Networks," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-17, March.
    4. Chang Wei & Jingjing Li & Chengfu Yu & Yanhan Chen & Shuangju Zhen & Wei Zhang, 2021. "Deviant Peer Affiliation and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury among Chinese Adolescents: Depression as a Mediator and Sensation Seeking as a Moderator," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-10, August.
    5. Dominic Weinberg & Gonneke W. J. M. Stevens & Elisa L. Duinhof & Catrin Finkenauer, 2019. "Adolescent Socioeconomic Status and Mental Health Inequalities in the Netherlands, 2001–2017," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-18, September.
    6. Viorel Rotila, 2018. "The Smartphone is One of the Externalizations of the Mind that Aspires to the Status of its Extension," Postmodern Openings, Editura Lumen, Department of Economics, vol. 9(4), pages 65-97, December.
    7. Wang Li & Yufei Cui & Qiang Gong & Zhihong Zhu, 2022. "Association of Smartphone Use Duration with Physical Fitness among University Students: Focus on Strength and Flexibility," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(12), pages 1-9, June.
    8. Cecilia Peñacoba Puente & Carlos Suso-Ribera & Sheila Blanco Rico & Dolores Marín & Jesús San Román Montero & Patricia Catalá, 2021. "Is the Association between Postpartum Depression and Early Maternal–Infant Relationships Contextually Determined by Avoidant Coping in the Mother?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-14, January.
    9. Diana Puzio & Iwona Makowska & Krystyna Rymarczyk, 2022. "Raising the Child—Do Screen Media Help or Hinder? The Quality over Quantity Hypothesis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-15, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:6:p:3289-:d:522054. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.