Psychometric Properties of Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire-15 for Predicting Suicidal Ideation among Migrant Industrial Workers in China

Abstract

Objective: Interpersonal theories of suicide suggest that the Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire (INQ) can be used to measure suicidal ideation, but few studies have focused on migrant people, a group with a high prevalence of suicidal ideation. The aim of this study was to validate the psychometric properties of the INQ-15 and its prediction of suicidal ideation among migrant industrial workers in China. Method: A stratified multi-stage sample of 2023 industrial workers was recruited from 16 factories in Shenzhen, China. There were 1805 nonlocal workers, which we defined as migrant workers with a mean age of 32.50 ± 8.43 years old who were 67.3% male. The structure of the Chinese version of the INQ-15 and its correlation and predictive utility for suicidal ideation were examined through factor analysis, the Item Response Theory, the M2 test, logistic regression, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Results: Different from studies among various samples in which a two-factor solution is identified, results within this sample indicated three factors: perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness, and social isolation. The model fit statistics of three-factor INQ were 0.075 for RMSEA, 0.945 for CFI, 0.932 for TLI, and 0.067 for SRMR. The model standard estimated factor loadings ranged from 0.366 to 0.869. The summed scores of INQ and perceived burdensomeness predicted suicidal ideation after controlling for sociodemographic characteristics such as age, gender, and income with AUC of 0.733 (95% CI: 0.712/0.754) and 0.786 (95% CI: 0.766/0.804). In the meantime, the comparison of the predictive ability between INQ total scores and PB scores was significant with p < 0.05. Conclusion: The INQ has good psychometric properties and can be used to assess how migrant workers living in the Shenzhen perceive meeting interpersonal psychological needs and shows good predictive ability of suicidal ideation. Perceived burdensomeness appears to play a role in suicide and may be a point of intervention, yet the notable deviation from previous findings and the relative weakness of two of the other factors warrant further study.

The Mental Health and Syndemic Effect on Suicidal Ideation among Migrant Workers in China: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Once the desire and capability to commit suicide are present in people, near-lethal and lethal suicide attempts are more likely to occur [ 55 ]. Strong empirical evidence supported that the development of suicidal desire can be predicted through measurement of interpersonal needs including thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness to prevent subsequent suicide attempts [ 44 , 56 ]. As expected, all psychosocial variables in our constructed syndemic model not only increased the risk of suicidal ideation individually, but also can coexist to increase the burden of health consequences.…”

“…A higher score reflected greater perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness (Cronbach’s α = 0.749, range 15–105). The scale had good psychometric properties and had been applied to Chinese migrant workers [ 44 ].…”

Perceived Burdensomeness, Thwarted Belongingness, and Social Exclusion in Transgender Women: Psychometric Properties of the Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire

“…However, a study investigating the construct validity of the INQ among clinically depressed and suicidal youth extracted a third factor from the TB factor and named it "perceived isolation" (Hunt et al, 2020). This three-factor solution including an additional factor "social isolation" for the INQ was confirmed later in another sample of Chinese migrant workers (Wang et al, 2021a). One commonality of these two validation studies is that they focus on a specific population who tend to have poor interpersonal bonds as a result of environmental or emotional maladjustment.…”

“…The aim of the present study was to examine the structure and validate the use of the Chinese version of the INQ-15 among a sample of TGW. Although the INQ has been widely translated and used in different countries to measure interpersonal needs and predict suicidal ideation, few studies have examined the psychometric properties of INQ in Chinese people and none of them focused on TGW despite their high suicide rates ( Lai and Boag, 2021 ; Wang et al, 2021a ). Considering the special social and cultural status in which TGW live ( Winter et al, 2016 ), it is necessary to determine whether the INQ is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing interpersonal needs in this population.…”

“…INQ has been validated among college students (Becker et al, 2020;Loas et al, 2021), young male adults (Teo et al, 2018), community-dwelling older persons (Shim et al, 2021), current firefighters (Chu et al, 2016), clinically depressed and suicidal youth (Hunt et al, 2020) and military veterans (O'Connor et al, 2017), and translated to different languages (Podlogar et al, 2017;Silva et al, 2018;Park and Kim, 2019;Iliceto et al, 2021;Lai and Boag, 2021). While the two-factor structure-thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness-showed reliable and acceptable model fit to college students, older people, and firefighters, studies among clinically depressed and suicidal youth (Hunt et al, 2020) and migrant workers (Wang et al, 2021a) validated a better model fit for three dimensions of the INQ. These particular groups like TGW and suicidal youth shared similar experiences of loneliness and as Quintin A.…”