# Employing Ecological Momentary Assessment to Study Emotion Regulation, Coping, and Impulsivity among Youth at High-Risk for Suicide

> **NIH NIH F31** · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON · 2021 · $13,329

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Suicide is a leading cause of death among youth and recent reports have detected increases in rates. To date,
researchers are not able to reliably predict who is most at-risk for suicide, nor do they know when individuals are
at most imminent risk. Much of the prior research has focused on distal predictors of suicide ideation (SI) and
self-injurious behaviors (SIB; SI/SIB), in other words relations among demographic or diagnostic information
present in the years before someone is most at risk. This information may help researchers identify individuals
most likely to be at-risk, but is not helpful in identifying when risk is most imminent. Additionally, much of the
research has relied on retrospective recall methods, or asking people about their SI/SIB history months and
years after someone experienced SI or engaged in SIB. These methods are likely to lead to inaccurate reports
of SI/SIB and factors that may have led to them. This study aims to employ ecological momentary assessment
(EMA), or questionnaires administered over smart-phones, to understand high-risk for suicide individuals'
emotions, coping behaviors, and impulsivity in the moments leading up to SI/SIB among youth ages 16-20.
Participants will answer questions daily, 5 times per day, over the course of 14 days aimed at understanding
their thoughts and feelings, in addition to the coping strategies they use to regulate affective states. The goal of
this research is to more reliably predict not only who, but when, youth are most at-risk for suicide, and to
understand more clearly the processes implicated in order to inform and tailor treatments aimed at preventing
the occurrence of SI/SIB.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10085681
- **Project number:** 5F31MH117827-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
- **Principal Investigator:** Kevin Kuehn
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $13,329
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-02-01 → 2021-06-15

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10085681

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10085681, Employing Ecological Momentary Assessment to Study Emotion Regulation, Coping, and Impulsivity among Youth at High-Risk for Suicide (5F31MH117827-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10085681. Licensed CC0.

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