Specificity and sensitivity of the Beck Hopelessness Scale for suicidal ideation among adolescents entering early intervention service

Abstract

Previous studies have shown an association between hopelessness and suicidal behaviour in clinical populations. The aim of the study was to investigate sensitivity, specificity, and predictive validity of the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) for suicidal ideation in adolescents who show early risk signs on the psychiatric disorder continuum. Three-hundred and two help-seeking adolescents (mean age = 15.5 years) who were entering an early intervention team at Helsinki University Central Hospital, Finland, completed questionnaires of BHS and suicidal ideation, derived from Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II). Results suggest that a BHS cut-off score ≥8 (sensitivity = 0.70, specificity = 0.76) or cut-off score ≥9 (sensitivity = 0.63, specificity = 0.80) may be useful to detect suicidal ideation with BHS in help-seeking adolescents population. Results remain mainly the same in a separate analysis with adolescents at risk for psychosis. The results support previous cut-off points for BHS in identification of suicidal ideation. The results suggest also that lower cut-off scores may be useful in sense of sensitivity, especially in clinical settings.

Keywords:

• Hopelessness
• suicidal ideation
• specificity
• sensitivity
• adolescents

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all adolescents and all team members of JERI-project who helped in data collection and all community co-workers we worked with during this study.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.