Measurement invariance of suicide screening measures across military branch

ABSTRACT

Military suicide rates are near all-time highs. To help clinicians and researchers study suicide risk factors in military samples, the Military Suicide Research Consortium (MSRC) developed a set of brief suicide-risk screening measures. While previous research has examined the reliability of these screening measures, it remains unclear if measurement differences exist across different military branches. This is an important omission given that establishing measurement equivalence or invariance (ME/I) across groups is a prerequisite for making group comparisons, which are necessary for accurately identifying and effectively intervening with groups at heightened risk. This study examined the ME/I of four MSRC screening measures (e.g., Depressive Symptom Index – Suicidality Subscale; Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire; Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire – Revised; Suicide Intent Scale) using a sample of 4,487 participants across military branches (Army; National Guard; Navy; Marine; Air Force) using a series of multiple-group confirmatory factor analyses (MGCFA). We assessed configural, threshold, and loading invariance, with results indicating that the brief screening measures are fully invariant between individuals from different military branches and that these suicide screeners can be used to examine differences across branches in future research. Research and applied implications are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Suicide
• assessment
• military
• measurement invariance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the Military Suicide Research Consortium (https://msrc.fsu.edu/).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Notes

1. RMSEA is another commonly assessed fit index in MGCFA; however, it is not a recommended fit index in cases such as this, when there is a small number of degrees of freedom, or items (see Kenny, Kaniskan, & McCoach, 2015).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported, in part, by the Military Suicide Research Consortium (MSRC), an effort supported by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs under Award No. [W81XWH-16-2-0004]. Opinions, interpretations, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the authors and are not necessarily endorsed by the MSRC or the Department of Defense.