Initial Validation of Brief Measures of Suicide Risk Factors: Common Data Elements Used by the Military Suicide Research Consortium
Publication Date
6-1-2018
Document Type
Article
Organizational Units
College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Psychology
Keywords
Military, Suicide, Risk assessment, Suicidal ideation, Suicidal behavior
Abstract
The Military Suicide Research Consortium (MSRC) developed a 57-item questionnaire assessing suicide risk factors, referred to as the Common Data Elements (CDEs), in order to facilitate data sharing and improve collaboration across independent studies. All studies funded by MSRC are required to include the CDEs in their assessment protocol. The CDEs include shortened measures of the following: current and past suicide risk, lethality and intent of past suicide attempts, hopelessness, thwarted belongingness, anxiety sensitivity, posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, traumatic brain injury, insomnia, and alcohol abuse. This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the CDE items drawn from empirically validated measures. Exploratory factor analysis was used to examine the overall structure of the CDE items, and confirmatory factor analyses were used to evaluate the distinct properties of each scale. Internal consistencies of the CDE scales and correlations with full measures were also examined. Merged data from 3,140 participants (81.0% military service members, 75.6% male) across 19 MSRC-funded studies were used in analyses. Results indicated that all measures exhibited adequate internal consistency, and all CDE shortened measures were significantly correlated with the corresponding full measures with moderate to strong effect sizes. Factor analyses indicated that the shortened CDE measures performed well in comparison with the full measures. Overall, our findings suggest that the CDEs are not only brief but also provide psychometrically valid scores when assessing suicide risk and related factors that may be used in future research.
Copyright Date
2017
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
All Rights Reserved.
Rights Holder
American Psychological Association
Provenance
Received from CHORUS
Language
English (eng)
Publication Statement
Copyright is held by the American Psychological Association. User is responsible for all copyright compliance. This article was originally published as:
Ringer, F. B., Soberay, K. A., Rogers, M. L., Hagan, C. R., Chu, C., Schneider, M., ..., & Joiner, T. E. (2018). Initial validation of brief measures of suicide risk factors: Common data elements used by the Military Suicide Research Consortium. Psychological Assessment, 30(6), 767–778. https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0000519
Accepted Manuscript is openly available through the "Link to Full Text" button.
The published Version of Record is available at libraries through Compass or Worldcat.
Publication Title
Psychological Assessment
Volume
30
Issue
6
First Page
767
Last Page
778
ISSN
1939-134X
PubMed ID
29130694
Recommended Citation
Ringer, F. B., Soberay, K. A., Rogers, M. L., Hagan, C. R., Chu, C., Schneider, M., ..., & Joiner, T. E. (2018). Initial validation of brief measures of suicide risk factors: Common data elements used by the Military Suicide Research Consortium. Psychological Assessment, 30(6), 767–778. https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0000519