Open trial of a brief, web-assisted behavioural intervention to reduce thwarted belongingness and suicidal ideation among adolescents: The Supporting Grieving Teens intervention

Background: Bereavement during childhood is associated with elevated rates of suicide-related behaviours among youth. However, no interventions explicitly address suicidal ideation among bereaved youth. The Supporting Grieving Teens (SGT) programme was created as a preventive intervention to reduce suicide risk among bereaved youth. Methods: This preliminary open trial evaluated the feasibility, acceptability and preliminary outcomes of the SGT intervention among a sample of bereaved adolescents. Participants were 32 adolescents, 12-17years of age (M = 14.44, SD = 1.56; 87.5% female, 31.3% Hispanic, 31.3% African American/Black and 25.0% non-Hispanic White), seeking bereavement-related services at a trauma and grief speciality outpatient clinic. Participants completed a two-session web-assisted intervention prior to enrolling in standard outpatient therapy. Results: There was a high rate of completion of the intervention, with 93.8% of those who provided assent completing both intervention sessions. Youth reported high levels of satisfaction with the intervention. Preliminary evaluation of outcomes demonstrated that the intervention was associated with small but significant reductions in thwarted belongingness and suicide ideation over the course of treatment and followup. However, reliable change indices indicated reliable improvements for only a subset of participants. Limitations: This study utilised an open trial design without a control group, and so causality cannot be inferred. Additional limitations include the small sample size and limited variability in suicidal ideation in the sample. Conclusions: The intervention shows promise as a brief, web-assisted psychosocial intervention for activating youths' existing social support networks. Further research is needed to more rigorously evaluate the intervention.