Multimethod Assessment of Suicidality in Adolescent Psychiatric Inpatients: Preliminary Results

• NCJ Number: 190538
• Journal: Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Volume: 40 Issue: 9 Dated: September 2001 Pages: 1053-1061
• Author(s): Mitchell J. Prinstein Ph.D.; Matthew K. Nock M.S.; Anthony Spirito Ph.D.; W. L. Grapentine M.D.
• Editor(s): Mina K. Dulcan M.D.
• Date Published: September 2001
• Length: 9 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study provided initial empirical data to address the measurement of suicidality in at-risk adolescents. By measuring suicidal ideation and suicidal behavior among adolescent psychiatric inpatients, the study was able to examine the utility of assessment instruments among adolescents exhibiting severe levels of suicidality and for whom accurate identification of suicide risk was most critical.

Abstract

Data was limited on the agreement among different methods of measuring adolescent suicidality and little consensus on the most accurate, reliable, and cost-effective methods to examine adolescents’ potential for suicide. This study examined agreement among multiple assessments of adolescent suicidal ideation and suicidal behavior for adolescent psychiatric inpatients, including pencil/paper checklists; structured and unstructured interviews; and adolescent, clinician, and parent reports, and to provide suggestions for the accurate and reliable assessment of suicidality in adolescence. Study participants included 153 adolescents (54 boys and 99 girls) admitted to an adolescent psychiatric inpatient unit in New England. Results indicated significantly different rates of suicidality across each instrument and poor to moderate agreement between similar measures of adolescent suicidal ideation and suicidal behavior. Agreement between measures was generally best for boys, for older adolescents, and for assessments relying on a single informant. The findings suggested that agreement in itself might be a useful marker for adolescent suicide. Analyses suggested that the agreement between measures using different assessment modalities or measuring different types of suicidality was relatively low. Overall, results indicated that the best approach for the assessment of adolescent suicidality involved the use of multiple measures that included several informants and several modalities of assessment. The results could be applied only to inpatient populations, unique in that adolescents’ responses had direct implications on the length of their hospitalization creating a significant limitation to the study. References