Understanding the lived experience and support needs of parents of suicidal adolescents to inform an online parenting programme: qualitative study.

Abstract

Background: Suicidal ideation and behaviours are common among adolescents, posing significant challenges. Parents have a protective role in mitigating this risk, yet they often feel ill-equipped to support their adolescents, and their specific support needs are not well understood.

Aims: To explore the lived experiences of parents with suicidal adolescents and identify their support needs in the context of a therapist-assisted online parenting programme.

Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with three stakeholder groups based in Australia: nine parents with lived experience caring for a suicidal adolescent, five young people who experienced suicidality during adolescence and five clinical/research experts in youth mental health/suicide prevention. Inductive thematic analysis was used to analyse and interpret findings.

Results: Three key themes highlight the experience of parenting a suicidal adolescent: the traumatising emotional experience, uncertainty and parent empowerment. Six themes described parents' support needs: validation and support, practical and tailored strategies, rebuilding the parent-adolescent relationship, parental self-care, flexible and accessible modes of delivery, and understanding non-suicidal self-injury.

Conclusions: Findings highlight key themes of parenting a suicidal adolescent and parental support needs. An online parenting programme could offer parents flexible access to evidence-based parenting strategies. Yet, a purely digital approach may not address the complexities of the parent-adolescent dynamic and provide adequate tailoring. As such, a hybrid approach incorporating therapist support can provide parents with both the compassionate support and practical guidance they seek.