Paul Alexander Bloom, Ph.D.

Fellow in Child and Adolescent Depression

Project Details

Mentors

Randy P. Auerbach, Ph.D., ABPP. 
Munmun De Choudhury, Ph.D. 
Xuhai “Orson” Xu, Ph.D. 


Project

Identifying Short-Term Linguistic Markers of Suicide Risk via Social Media Logs in Depressed Youth 


Project summary

This project examines how specific social media experiences relate to short-term suicide risk in adolescents. The study will recruit youth (N=80) ages 13-17 visiting the pediatric emergency department for suicide concerns, who will securely share their social media archives from major platforms, including Instagram, TikTok, Twitter (X), and Facebook. These records include posts, messages, and comments that reflect both public and private online experiences. Analyses will track changes in linguistic metrics of bullying, social support, and suicide-related content derived from the social media data and examine whether these patterns predict short-term suicide risk. A Youth Advisory Board with lived experience of suicidal thoughts and behaviors will offer input to ensure the research methods are appropriate and meaningful. Findings will help identify short-term digital markers of suicide risk, inform technology policies that better support youth, and guide the development of clinical tools for youth suicide prevention. 

Our Fellows: View an alphabetical list of all fellows.
Our Granted Institutions: View a list of all granted institutions.