Suicide Cognitions Scale: Psychometric Support in a Community Sample Using Bifactor Modeling and Altered Item Content

Emma H. Moscardini, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, USA.
Sarah Pardue-Bourgeois, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, USA.
D Nicolas Oakey-Frost, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, USA.
Jeffrey Powers, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, USA.
Craig J. Bryan, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, USA.
Raymond P. Tucker, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, USA.

Abstract

The Suicide Cognitions Scale (SCS) measures suicide-related beliefs proposed by the Fluid Vulnerability Theory. A recent investigation of a revised version of the SCS (i.e., SCS-R) which omits items explicitly referencing suicide has indicated that the measure is highly influenced by a general factor and may be useful for distinguishing severity levels of suicidal thoughts and behaviors; however, limited concurrent validity studies with a range of suicide-related experiences have been conducted. As such, this study replicated and extended previous psychometric research on the SCS-R in an online survey study with a community sample of = 10,625 U.S. adults. Results confirmed the unidimensional structure of the SCS-R. Logistic regression analyses indicated that the total score of the SCS-R is useful in distinguishing varying levels of suicidal thoughts and behaviors such as past-month planning for suicide without attempt versus past-month suicide attempt. Implications and limitations are discussed.