How do young people discuss the topic of suicide in an anonymous chat counselling service? The new research article by Alix Helfer, Kati Kataja and Tuuli Pitkänen examines young people’s genuine experiences in terms of suicidal behavior discussed online and their motivations for seeking help anonymously.
The study consisted of text-based synchronous conversations (n = 4,340) between young service users aged 15–29 years and online adult counsellors during a period of five months. Conversations using the word suicide (n = 558) were filtered, and 62 conversations were selected for in-depth analyses.
Conversations about suicide were common and emerged in every eighth entry in the larger dataset. The in-depth analyses revealed the severity of suicidal behavior and the depth of despair. One-third of the young service users mentioned previous suicide attempts, and approximately every fourth conversation indicated a suicide plan. Prolonged mental health concerns were discussed in the majority of the conversations, but also fragmented relationships and disconnectedness from close-knit communities were reported as reasons for suicidal behavior.
Young people used the anonymous online chat counseling service to get help, support and understanding from adults. The chat was often used because the young service user did not know where else to turn. Alternatively, the service had a supporting role for those already in other services or who had bad experiences with mental health professionals. For some chat users, burdensome topics were possible to discuss only anonymously online.
Online counseling can be demanding as topics discussed online were severe. Counselors have the potential to offer young people proximity at a distance to severe emotional distress and encourage further help-seeking in the service path.
Read the article:
Alix Helfer, Kati Kataja & Tuuli Pitkänen (2025). When Despair Takes Over: Suicide Conversations in an Online Counseling Chat Service for Youth (Visit an external site. The link opens in a new tab.). Child & Youth Services, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/0145935X.2024.2437758
More information
This study was undertaken as part of the Out of Despair project funded by the Strategic Research Council established in the Academy of Finland under a grant for the Out of Despair project (no. 352600), the Finnish Youth Research Society (no. 352603) and the Tampere University (no. 352602) and co-funded by the European Union, ERASMUS + KA220-CHAT-YOUTH project (2023-1-FI01-KA220-YOU-000153237).
The study is linked to the research projects Youth online counselling services supporting wellbeing and CHAT-YOUTH.
