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Enhancing emotion regulation with an in situ socially assistive robot among LGBTQ+ youth with self-harm ideation: protocol for a randomised controlled trial

Enhancing emotion regulation with an in situ socially assistive robot among LGBTQ+ youth with self-harm ideation: protocol for a randomised controlled trial

Authors :
Chris Hollis
Kareem Khan
Peter Fonagy
Rohan Borschmann
Cathy Creswell
Kapil Sayal
Nitish Jawahar
A Jess Williams
Ellen Townsend
Dorothee Auer
Praveetha Patalay
Yvonne Kelly
Christopher R Tench
Paul Stallard
Louise Arseneault
Sieun Lee
Sally Merry
Charlotte Hall
Jo Gregory
Rory O’Connor
Emma Nielsen
Edmund Sonuga-Barke
Seonaid Cleare
James Gross
Amelia Chapman-Nisar
Nkem Naeche
Petr Slovak
Emily Lloyd
Josimar De Alcantara Mendes
Carolyn Ten Holter
Marina Jirotka
Zsofia Lazar
Aaron Kandola
Sonia Livingstone
Kasia Kostryka-Allchorne
Jake Bourgaize
Mariya Stoilova
Marianne Etherson
Chris Greenhalgh
Jim Warren
Vajisha Wanniarachchi
Kevin Glover
Mathijs Lucassen
Karolina Stasiak
Camilla Babbage
Adam Parker
Joanna Lockwood
Elvira Perez Vallejos
Rebecca Woodcock
Sarah Doherty
Lucy-Paige Willingham
Source :
BMJ Open, Vol 14, Iss 1 (2024)
Publication Year :
2024
Publisher :
BMJ Publishing Group, 2024.

Abstract

Introduction Purrble, a socially assistive robot, was codesigned with children to support in situ emotion regulation. Preliminary evidence has found that LGBTQ+ youth are receptive to Purrble and find it to be an acceptable intervention to assist with emotion dysregulation and their experiences of self-harm. The present study is designed to evaluate the impact of access to Purrble among LGBTQ+ youth who have self-harmful thoughts, when compared with waitlist controls.Methods and analysis The study is a single-blind, randomised control trial comparing access to the Purrble robot with waitlist control. A total of 168 LGBTQ+ youth aged 16–25 years with current self-harmful ideation will be recruited, all based within the UK. The primary outcome is emotion dysregulation (Difficulties with Emotion Regulation Scale-8) measured weekly across a 13-week period, including three pre-deployment timepoints. Secondary outcomes include self-harm (Self-Harm Questionnaire), anxiety (Generalised Anxiety Disorder-7) and depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9). We will conduct analyses using linear mixed models to assess primary and secondary hypotheses. Intervention participants will have unlimited access to Purrble over the deployment period, which can be used as much or as little as they like. After all assessments, control participants will receive their Purrble, with all participants keeping the robot after the end of the study. After the study has ended, a subset of participants will be invited to participate in semistructured interviews to explore engagement and appropriation of Purrble, considering the young people’s own views of Purrble as an intervention device.Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval was received from King’s College London (RESCM-22/23-34570). Findings will be disseminated in peer review open access journals and at academic conferences.Trial registration number NCT06025942.

Subjects

Subjects :
Medicine

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
20446055
Volume :
14
Issue :
1
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
BMJ Open
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.6be4317383c414dad44c336e4e2aef1
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-079801