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Development of the Frequency of Suicidal Ideation Inventory: Evidence for the Validity and Reliability of a Brief Measure of Suicidal Ideation Frequency in a College Student Population

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Abstract

The present research focused on the development of a brief measure of suicidal ideation frequency, namely, the Frequency of Suicidal Ideation Inventory (FSII). Study 1 examined the latent structure of the FSII in a sample of 399 US college students. Results of exploratory factor analysis indicated a one-factor solution accounting for 86.96 % of the variance. Study 2 provided support for the internal reliability of the FSII across four different international samples (viz., US, Turkey, Hungary, and China). Within the US sample, the FSII was found to possess good 6-week test–retest reliability. Moreover, an examination of the associations between the FSII and important measures of suicide risk factors (e.g., suicidal behaviors) and suicide protective factors (e.g., flourishing) provided support for the construct validity of our new measure in an independent sample of 143 US college students. In addition, we found preliminary evidence supporting the FSII as a useful measure of the likelihood of making a future suicide attempt and evidence for the utility of the FSII over established measures of suicide risk in predicting depressive symptoms. Overall, the present findings provide promising evidence for the validity and reliability of the FSII as a brief measure of SI frequency in adults.

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Acknowledgments

Edward C. Chang would like to thank the Optimism/Pessimism and Perfectionism (OPP) Lab for their assistance on the present studies, and to Mine Muyan, Martos Tamás, and Hongfei Yang for their help in collecting the international data reported herein. The first author would also like to acknowledge Tae Myung-Sook and Chang Suk-Choon for their encouragement and support throughout this project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Edward C. Chang

  2. Research in Action Academy™, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Olivia D. Chang

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  1. Edward C. Chang
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  2. Olivia D. Chang
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Correspondence to Edward C. Chang.

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Edward C. Chang and Olivia D. Chang declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Informed Consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Institutional Review Board at the university where the study was conducted. Informed consent was obtained from all individuals participating in the present study.

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No animal studies were carried out by the authors for this article.

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Chang, E.C., Chang, O.D. Development of the Frequency of Suicidal Ideation Inventory: Evidence for the Validity and Reliability of a Brief Measure of Suicidal Ideation Frequency in a College Student Population. Cogn Ther Res 40, 549–556 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-016-9758-0

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