Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020;15(3):348-361.
doi: 10.1080/17439760.2019.1615105. Epub 2019 May 16.

Skills to Enhance Positivity in Suicidal Adolescents: Results from a Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial

Shirley Yen  1   2 , Megan L Ranney  3   4 , Maya Krek  1 , Jessica R Peters  1 , Ethan H Mereish  5 , Katherine M Tezanos  6 , Christopher W Kahler  7 , Joel Solomon  8 , Courtney Beard  8 , Anthony Spirito  1
Affiliations

Skills to Enhance Positivity in Suicidal Adolescents: Results from a Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial

Shirley Yen et al. J Posit Psychol. 2020.

Abstract

The objective of this study was to examine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effects of an intervention, Skills to Enhance Positivity (STEP) that aims to increase attention to positive emotions and experiences and to decrease suicidal events. STEP involves four in-person individual sessions delivered during an inpatient psychiatric admission, followed by one month of weekly phone calls and daily text messages with mood monitoring and skills practice. A pilot randomized controlled trial of STEP vs. enhanced treatment as usual (ETAU) was conducted with 52 adolescents. Results indicated that on average 83% of sessions were completed and that on 70% of days, participants engaged with the text-messaging component of the intervention. Acceptability for both in-person and text-messaging components were also high, with satisfaction ratings averaging between good and excellent. STEP participants reported fewer suicide events than ETAU participants (6 vs. 13) after six months of follow-up.

Keywords: Adolescents; Digital Health; Gratitude; Mindfulness; Positive Affect; Savoring; Suicidal Behaviors; Text Message Intervention.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests: The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
STEP-RCT CONSORT Diagram
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Attkisson CC, & Zwick R (1982). The client satisfaction questionnaire. Psychometric properties and correlations with service utilization and psychotherapy outcome. Eval Program Plann, 5(3), 233–237. - PubMed
    1. Beck AT, Steer RA, & Brown GK (1996). Beck depression inventory-II. San Antonio, 78(2), 490–498.
    1. Bird HR, Andrews H, Schwab-Stone M, Goodman S, Dulcan M, Richters J, . . . Hoven C (1996). Global measures of impairment for epidemiologic and clinical use with children and adolescents. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research.
    1. Bird HR, Shaffer D, Fisher P, & Gould MS (1993). The Columbia Impairment Scale (CIS): Pilot findings on a measure of global impairment for children and adolescents. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research.
    1. Bolier L, Haverman M, Westerhof GJ, Riper H, Smit F, & Bohlmeijer E (2013). Positive psychology interventions: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled studies. BMC public health, 13(1), 119. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources