iKinnect2.0 for Juvenile Justice Involved Youth at Risk for Suicide

Summary

This study is a 16-week intent-to-treat randomized controlled trial (RCT) with 120 suicidal juvenile justice (JJ)-involved transition-age (TA) youth (age 15-21 years) and a primary caregiver (dyads). Dyads will be randomly assigned to iKinnect2.0 (n=60 dyads) or Life360 (control app) plus an electronic suicide resources brochure (n=60 dyads). This design will test iKinnect2.0's new features for suicide prevention against TA youth awareness of and access to high-quality suicide prevention resources, while simultaneously testing features relating to conduct problems and parent management against parents knowing the TA youth's whereabouts in real-time and controlling for dyad member engagement in technology (Life360). Participants will be assessed at baseline, 4, 8 and 16 weeks. Primary youth-reported outcomes relating to suicide risk include: Suicidal behaviors (ideation, planning, attempts), non-suicidal self-injurious behaviors, self-efficacy in coping with distress, and use of imminent distress coping strategies (behavioral skills, use of crisis stabilization plan). Youth will also report on their criminal behavior. Primary caregiver-reported outcome variables relating to youth suicide include: Self-efficacy in applying family-based suicide-prevention strategies and reported use of those strategies; caregivers will also report on their own functioning (efficacy/confidence in parenting skills, life stress), TA youth functioning (internalizing and externalizing symptoms), parental management behaviors (expectation clarity, parental monitoring, discipline effectiveness/consistency, use of rewards), and parent-youth relationship quality (communication, conflict, support). App satisfaction and use of technology outcomes (i.e., degree of app usage, features used) will be examined and reported descriptively.

Conditions

• Child Behavior Disorders
• Suicide and Self-harm

Interventions

DEVICE

iKinnect2.0

iKinnect2.0 is a paired mobile phone app for use on both Android and iOS operating systems by youth with conduct disorders and their parents.

DEVICE

Active Control App

Mobile phone app for use on both Android and iOS operating systems for GPS tracking of other persons.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

  collaborator NIH

• University of Maryland

  collaborator OTHER

• Evidence-Based Practice Institute, Seattle, WA

  lead INDUSTRY

Principal Investigators

• Linda Dimeff, PhD · Evidence-Based Practice Institute

• Cindy Schaeffer, PhD · University of Maryland

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

15 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2023-06-01

Primary Completion

2025-10-21

Completion

2025-10-21

FDA Device

Yes

Countries

• United States

Study Locations