Examining Factors Influencing the Differential Reporting of Suicide Attempt History Among Undergraduates at Elevated Suicide Risk

* This research was presented at the 2019 American Association of Suicidology annual conference in Denver, Colorado, on April 24, 2019, as a poster presentation.

Abstract

Aim

Prior studies suggest that individuals may respond inconsistently to different assessments of suicide attempt (SA) history; yet, little is known regarding why inconsistent reporting of SA history may occur. The overarching goal of this study was to examine individuals’ self-reported reasons for inconsistently responding to different self-report measures designed to assess SA history.

Methods

Young adults who reported a lifetime history of suicidal ideation (N = 141) completed three different self-report measures of SA history: the (1) Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (BSS), (2) Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised (SBQ-R), and (3) Self-Injurious Thoughts and Behaviors Interview-Short Form (SITBI-SF). All measures were administered in a randomized order to control for potential order effects. Descriptive statistics were used to test study aims.

Results

Of the sample, 75% of participants denied an SA history across all three measures, 16% reported an SA history across all measures (“consistent responders”), and 9% responded inconsistently to SA history measures (“inconsistent responders”). Of the 9% (n = 12) of participants who inconsistently responded to SA history measures, the most commonly reported reasons for inconsistent reporting were that the definition of the term “attempt” was not made clear and that the participant did not read the SA history probes carefully.

Conclusion

Findings from this study underscore a need for increased efforts to improve SA history assessments.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Some individuals may provide inconsistent responses across different suicide attempt measures.

• Confusion about the definition of a “suicide attempt” may lead to inconsistent responding.

• Further research is needed to improve our assessment of suicide attempt history.

Keywords:

• Assessment
• consistent reporting
• suicide
• suicide attempt

AUTHOR NOTES

Evan A. Albury, Melanie A. Hom, Ian H. Stanley, and Thomas E. Joiner, Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, USA.

Notes

* This research was presented at the 2019 American Association of Suicidology annual conference in Denver, Colorado, on April 24, 2019, as a poster presentation.

1 Of the 17 individuals excluded, 8 provided invalid responses (i.e., completed the survey in less than 1 minute) and 9 did not report lifetime history of SI.

2 The purpose of this study was to examine patterns of participants’ reporting of SA history, specifically. Yet, to characterize the sample, we offer the following information regarding metrics of clinical severity. The mean BSS total score was 3.8 (SD = 3.9, range: 2.0–23.0), and the mean SBQ-R total score was 8.2 (SD = 3.0, range: 3.0–17.0). Additionally, the intermeasure reliability among responses on the BSS, SBQ-R, and SITBI-SF was good (Intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] = .83, 95% confidence interval = .79–.87) and, based on our kappa values, agreement between pairs of SA history measures (e.g., BSS and SITBI-SF) appeared good (kappas = .80–.86). However, we caution against overinterpreting ICC values due to the small subset of inconsistent responders (see Weir, 2005, for discussion).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in part by the Florida State University Mark A. Berkley Undergraduate Research Award and the Psi Chi Undergraduate Research Grant.