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Citation
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Duan S, Wang H, Wilson A, Qiu J, Chen G, He Y, Wang Y, Ou J, Chen R. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub. |
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Abstract
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BACKGROUND: Deliberate self-harm (DSH) is common during adolescence and can have detrimental consequences for the well-being of adolescents. Although it is sometimes difficult to engage adolescents in traditional psychotherapies for DSH, SMS text messaging has shown to be promising for cost-effective and low-intensity interventions.
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the views of Chinese adolescents with DSH regarding SMS text messaging intervention to develop an acceptable and culturally competent intervention for adolescents with DSH.
METHODS: Semistructured interviews were conducted with 23 adolescents who had experience with DSH. The transcripts of the interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis.
RESULTS: Four themes were identified: beneficial perception of receiving messages, short frequency and duration of messages, caring content in messages, and specific times for sending messages. Most of the participants perceived SMS text messaging intervention to be beneficial. The key factors that emerged for the content of the intervention include encouragement and company, feeling like a virtual friend, providing coping strategies, and individualized messages. In addition, the preferred frequency and duration of the SMS text messaging intervention were identified.
CONCLUSIONS: Our study will help in the development of a culturally appropriate SMS text messaging intervention for adolescents with DSH. It has the potential to improve DSH by providing acceptable support for adolescents with DSH who may be reluctant to seek face-to-face psychotherapies.
Language: en |