Psychometric properties and clinical utility of the Scale for Suicidal Ideation (SSI) in adolescents

Abstract

Background: Accurate assessment of suicidality is of major importance in both clinical and research settings. The Scale for Suicidal Ideation (SSI) is a well-established clinician-rating scale but its suitability to adolescents has not been studied. The aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability and validity, and to test an appropriate cutoff threshold for the SSI in a depressed adolescent outpatient population and controls.

Dimensionality of thoughts of death and suicide: evidence from a study of homeless adolescents

“…On the other hand, the CFA and external consistency results indicated two constructs. The EFA results were consistent with previous psychometric studies (Holi et al, 2005;Lewinsohn et al, 1996;Pfeffer et al, 2000;Pinto et al, 1997;Tatman et al, 1993). Although the CFA results were consistent with two previous studies that used EFA (Reynolds, 1988(Reynolds, , 1990), they were not consistent with other studies that used CFA (Harlow et al, 1986;Light et al, 2003;Osman et al, 2002Osman et al, , 2003Stewart et al, 2006).…”

“…Cronbach's  for all 30 items was 0.97. In addition, Holi et al (2005) conducted an EFA on the Scale for Suicidal Ideation using an outpatient sample of adolescents. Analyses yielded a three-factor solution in which the death-related item (wish to die) loaded with suicidal ideation items on an ''active suicidal desire'' factor.…”

Suicidal Ideation and Attempts Among Psychiatric Patients With Major Depressive Disorder

“…In retrospect, this may have been somewhat high (Beck et al, 1999;Holi et al, 2005), although applying an alternative lower cut-off point (SSI≥2) did not change our findings. In addition, although the internal consistency of SSI was high (Cronbach's alpha 0.85-0.90), its inter-rater reliability remains unknown.…”

Factor structure and psychometric properties of the Modified Scale for Suicidal Ideation among suicidal youth

“…The clinician-rated Scale for Suicidal Ideation (SSI) [14] addresses some of these limitations, and a Finnish translation of the SSI has been validated in an outpatient adolescent sample. [15] However, we are not aware of studies that have examined the psychometric properties of the English-language SSI among adolescents. These limitations highlight the need for a brief, reliable, and valid English-language interview measure of suicidal ideation for youth, which conforms to the standard suicide nomenclature.…”