Social connectedness and adolescent suicide risk, in The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry
key takeaway: "Higher overall connectedness and, specifically, school connectedness were associated with decreased likelihood of a suicide attempt across 6 months. Overall connectedness and connectedness domains did not function as buffers for future suicide attempts among certain high-risk subgroups. The protective effect of overall connectedness was lower for youth with recent suicidal ideation or a suicide attempt history than for those without this history. Similarly, overall connectedness was protective for youth without peer victimization but not those with this history. Regarding specific domains, family connectedness was protective for youth without recent suicidal ideation or a suicide attempt history and peer connectedness was protective for youth without peer victimization but not youth with these histories."
Understanding Loneliness in Younger People: Review of the Opportunities and Challenges for Loneliness Interventions, in Interactive Journal of Medical Research
key takeaway: "The findings of this study show that the majority of interventions and reviews are focused on older people, with ICT-based and social media–based interventions showing promise for countering the effects of loneliness. There are new technologies, such as conversational agents and robots, which are tailored to the particular needs of younger people. This literature review suggests that the digital solutions developed to overcome loneliness can benefit people, and younger people in particular, more if they are made interactive in order to retain users."