The Use of Simulations to Assess the Impact of an Adolescent Suicide Response Curriculum

Abstract

This study employed simulations of encounters with suicidal peers to assess the impact of classroom suicide response lessons. Students were asked to anonymously write how they would respond, and how concerned they would be in regard to two vignettes of troubled peers. On the posttest, students who had participated in the classes provided significantly more “tell an adult” responses than those in the control group, whereas no differences existed between the groups on the pretest. On both the pretest and posttest, all students expressed greater concern on the unambiguous vignette (student said that he has been thinking about killing himself) than on the ambiguous vignette (student wrote an essay about final decisions); and, overall, females expressed greater concern than males. These results provide evidence for the efficacy of the classes and the utility of the simulations for assessing their impact.

A systematic review and narrative synthesis exploring the relationship between friendships and peer relationships, and self-harm ideation and behaviour among young people

“…Seven studies considered interventions for friends and peers, including four prevention strategies 114,115,116,117 , one intervention to improve peer support 118 , and two postvention strategies following peer death by suicide 119,120 . These are presented in appendix (p.14).…”