Assessing Chinese older adults’ suicidal ideation: Chinese version of the Geriatric Suicide Ideation Scale

Abstract

The psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Geriatric Suicide Ideation Scale (GSIS-C) were investigated in a sample of 154 Hong Kong Chinese older adults. The internal consistency, test-retest reliability, face validity, convergent and divergent validities of the GSIS-C were assessed and all of them were well above acceptable levels. The GSIS-C demonstrated excellent internal consistency including the four subscales and the test-retest reliability of the GSIS-C was also good. In terms of convergent validity, the GSIS-C correlated significantly and positively with depression (assessed by CES-D), loneliness (assessed by Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale), and hopelessness (assessed by Beck ‘Hop’elessness Scale). The divergent validity of the GSIS-C was demonstrated by the negative but significant, association between the GSIS-C and two variables including self-rated health status and life satisfaction (assessed by Life Satisfaction Inventory—Version A).

Acknowledgements

This study comprised part of the second author's Masters dissertation completed at University of Hong Kong under the supervision of the third author. The authors wish to thank the research assistants for their help in the data collection and those who kindly volunteered to participate in the study. The authors also would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier drafts of this article.