Suicide Risk Assessment in Adolescence: Evaluation of Two Methods Suicide is a major problem in adolescent populations across the world. According to Boege, Corpus, Schepker, and Fegert (2014), suicide is the second to third leading cause of death among those aged 15 to 17 (p.1). As it is such pervasive and deadly problem and because youth have unique perspectives, valid assessment of suicidal risk is a crucial aspect of adolescent psychiatry.
Overview of Two Methods of Assessment There are few suicide risk assessments that have been created specifically with youth in mind. One, the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire was recently created to meet the need for valid measures of suicidality in youth. Another, The Multi-Attitude Suicide Tendency …show more content…
Instead of adding complexity to the questionnaire, the creators of the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire made multiple versions of the assessment, each formatted to be used by a different group. As an example, the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire-Junior High is a shorter questionnaire to be used for the assessment of pre-adolescents, and the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire-Adult is for use in adults (Range, 2005, p.136). In comparison, the Multi-Attitude Suicide Tendency Scale is more complex in that questions relate to 4 core factors, referred to as subscales They are as follows: Attraction to Life, Attraction to Death, Repulsion by Life, and Repulsion by Death (Osman et al., 2000, p.377). In comparison to the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire, the Multi-Attitude Suicide Tendency Scale asks individuals to rank each statement on the questionnaire using a scale, though the scale in this questionnaire ranges from “1 = strongly agree to 5 = strongly disagree” (Range, 2005, p.137). While the Multi-Attitude Suicide Tendency Scale is more complex in nature, it does not carry the need to have multiple editions to be used by different …show more content…
The research done on the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire used a sample of 35 adolescents (Boege et al., p.2). When compared to the sample 180 adolescents used in the research of the Multi-Attitude Suicide Tendency Scale, this number is relatively small (Osman et al., 2000, p.378). A problem that arises when using a small sample size is the generalizability of the study. When considering just this, the information gathered on the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire is not necessarily generalizable to adolescents as a whole. That being said, there are many reasons why the Multi-Attitude Suicide Tendency Scale similarly lacks generalizability. Both of these studies focused on adolescents who had already, or were presenting with a psychiatric crisis in a hospital setting (Boege, 2014, p.2; Osman, 2000, p.378). Adolescence who are seen in a hospital setting “differ in several ways from community outpatient[s], nonclinical high school [students], and medical patients,” (Osman et al., 2000, p.383). In context, this means that both studies show validity in a hospital setting, but not necessarily when used in the
Overview of Two Methods of Assessment There are few suicide risk assessments that have been created specifically with youth in mind. One, the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire was recently created to meet the need for valid measures of suicidality in youth. Another, The Multi-Attitude Suicide Tendency …show more content…
Instead of adding complexity to the questionnaire, the creators of the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire made multiple versions of the assessment, each formatted to be used by a different group. As an example, the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire-Junior High is a shorter questionnaire to be used for the assessment of pre-adolescents, and the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire-Adult is for use in adults (Range, 2005, p.136). In comparison, the Multi-Attitude Suicide Tendency Scale is more complex in that questions relate to 4 core factors, referred to as subscales They are as follows: Attraction to Life, Attraction to Death, Repulsion by Life, and Repulsion by Death (Osman et al., 2000, p.377). In comparison to the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire, the Multi-Attitude Suicide Tendency Scale asks individuals to rank each statement on the questionnaire using a scale, though the scale in this questionnaire ranges from “1 = strongly agree to 5 = strongly disagree” (Range, 2005, p.137). While the Multi-Attitude Suicide Tendency Scale is more complex in nature, it does not carry the need to have multiple editions to be used by different …show more content…
The research done on the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire used a sample of 35 adolescents (Boege et al., p.2). When compared to the sample 180 adolescents used in the research of the Multi-Attitude Suicide Tendency Scale, this number is relatively small (Osman et al., 2000, p.378). A problem that arises when using a small sample size is the generalizability of the study. When considering just this, the information gathered on the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire is not necessarily generalizable to adolescents as a whole. That being said, there are many reasons why the Multi-Attitude Suicide Tendency Scale similarly lacks generalizability. Both of these studies focused on adolescents who had already, or were presenting with a psychiatric crisis in a hospital setting (Boege, 2014, p.2; Osman, 2000, p.378). Adolescence who are seen in a hospital setting “differ in several ways from community outpatient[s], nonclinical high school [students], and medical patients,” (Osman et al., 2000, p.383). In context, this means that both studies show validity in a hospital setting, but not necessarily when used in the