Psicothema. 2024 Feb;36(4):361-368. doi: 10.7334/psicothema2023.252.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Identifying accurate methods of assessing suicidal ideation has important implications. The lack of a universal definition of suicidal ideation has complicated measurement efforts. This study details the development of a brief self-report measure of suicidal ideation which specifically focuses on thoughts of suicide.
METHOD: The Questionnaire for Suicidal Ideation (QSI) was developed by collating items from three existing measures of suicidal ideation. Items explicitly describing acts or behaviours were removed and Posner et al.’s (2007) definition of suicidal ideation was applied to the remaining items. The final questionnaire consisted of 6 items. Participants were adults ( = 192) and adolescents ( = 152) attending community mental health services in the Irish public health service.
RESULTS: The QSI demonstrated excellent reliability in adult ( = .91) and adolescent ( = .90) samples. Exploratory factor analysis produced a one-factor solution explaining 70% and 66% of the variance in adult and adolescent samples respectively. Evidence of relation with other variables was demonstrated with strong correlations between the QSI and measures of depression, hopelessness and borderline symptoms ( = .48 – .68).
CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that the QSI may be a reliable and valid method of assessing suicidal ideation in clinical populations.
PMID:39466016 | DOI:10.7334/psicothema2023.252
