Measuring the Suicidal Mind: The ‘Open Source’ Suicidality Scale, for Adolescents and Adults

• DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/b4qut
• Publication Date: 2022-02-24T22:05:31Z
• Authors: Keith M. Harris; Lu Wang; Guanglun Michael Mu; Yanxia Lu; Cheryl So; Wei Zhang; Jing Ma; Kefei Liu; Wei Wang; Melvyn Zhang; Roger C. Ho
• Keywords: suicide attempt; Adult; Adolescent; Psychometrics; Science; 150; 610; Suicide, Attempted; psychology; mental disease; Suicidal Ideation; 0504 sociology; Surveys and Questionnaires; cross-sectional study; Humans; 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences; human; procedures; 10. No inequality; reproducibility; suicide; adult; questionnaire; Mental Disorders; Q; 05 social sciences; R; Reproducibility of Results; 3. Good health; suicidal ideation; Suicide; Cross-Sectional Studies; adolescent; psychometry; Medicine; Research Article

Clinicians are expected to provide accurate and useful mental health assessments, sometimes in emergency settings. The most urgent challenge may be calculating suicide risk. Unfortunately, existing instruments often fail meet requirements. To address this situation, we used a sustainable scale development approach create publicly available Suicidality Scale (SS). Following critical review of current measures, community input, panel discussions, an international item pool survey included 5,115 English-speaking participants aged 13-82 years. Revisions were tested with two follow-up cross-sectional surveys (Ns = 814 626). Pool items SS versions critically examined through response theory, hierarchical cluster, factor bifactor analyses, resulting unidimensional eight-item scale. Psychometric properties high (loadings > .77; discrimination 2.2; test-retest r .87; internal consistency, ω .96). Invariance checks satisfied for age, gender, ethnicity, rural/urban residence, first language, self-reported psychiatric diagnosis attempt history. showed stronger psychometric properties, significant differences bivariate associations depressive symptoms, compared measures. ‘open source’ represents step forward assessment people 13+, diverse populations. This study provides example utilizing emphasis on strong evidence from samples, free-to-use license allowing instrument revisions. These methods can develop wide variety psychosocial that benefit clinicians, researchers, the public.