NCT07383714

Nudging Parental Actions for Youth Suicide Prevention

Nudging Parental Action With A Randomized Controlled Trial of Text Messaging Intervention for Suicide Prevention

• Status: Not Yet Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 129 (estimated)
• Sponsor: University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 13 Years – 17 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The goal of the study is to determine effectiveness of a behaviorally informed text messaging intervention to help parents increase safety practices and reduce their teens' access to lethal means following a suicide-related emergency department visit.

Detailed description

This study tests a text messaging program that helps parents keep their teens safe after a visit to the emergency department for suicidal thoughts or behavior. Adolescents face a higher risk of suicide after leaving the emergency department, and limiting access to lethal means such as firearms, medications, or other dangerous items can help prevent suicide. The investigators invite parents and their teens aged 12 to 17 who visit the emergency department at Children's Medical Center Dallas for suicide-related reasons to join the study. After enrolling, families will be randomly assigned to one of three groups. The first group receives usual care, which includes standard counseling about keeping teens safe in the emergency room and no study text messages. The second group receives direct text messages three times a week with reminders about safety reminders. The third group receives risk-framing text messages three times a week, which include safety reminders and information about suicide risk following an emergency room visit to motivate parents to take action. The study measures whether these text messages help parents follow safety recommendations at home. Parents and teens complete short surveys at the start of the study, six weeks later, and twelve weeks later. The study also tracks whether the teen returns to the emergency department or attempts suicide again. The study aims to determine if text messages can increase parental safety practices, reduce teens' access to lethal means, and prevent future suicide attempts. UT Southwestern Medical Center and Children's Health Dallas conduct the study. Messages are delivered through a secure, HIPAA-compliant virtual platform to ensure privacy.

Conditions

• Suicide
• Suicide Attempt

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Text-messaging for safety reminders	The intervention consists of thrice-weekly, behaviorally informed text messages delivered to parents over six weeks period.
OTHER	Text-messaging with safety reminders and risk framing	Thrice-weekly messages incorporating safety precautions and evidence-based suicide risk statistics to recalibrate parental risk perception.

Timeline

• Start date: 2026-02-15
• Primary completion: 2027-06-15
• Completion: 2027-08-31
• First posted: 2026-02-03
• Last updated: 2026-02-05