Young Adult Follow‐up of Adolescent Girls in Juvenile Justice Using the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale

This study focused on the reliability and validity of the Columbia Suicide Severity Scale (C‐SSRS). Severely delinquent adolescent girls (n = 166) participated in a treatment trial and repeated assessments over time. Lifetime suicide attempt history was measured using the C‐SSRS in early adulthood (n = 144; 7–12 years postbaseline). Nonclinician raters showed strong interrater reliability using the C‐SSRS. Self‐reports, caseworker reports, and caregiver reports of girls' suicide attempt histories collected at baseline correlated with adult participants' recollections of their baseline attempt histories. Suicidal ideation measured prospectively across a 7‐ to –12‐year period was associated with retrospectively reported suicide attempt across the same period.     

Belongingness and Burdensomeness in Adolescents: Slovene Translation and Validation of the Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire

The Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire (INQ) for assessing thwarted belongingness (TB) and perceived burdensomeness (PB) has not been validated with community adolescents. We translated and administered the INQ to 307 Slovenian adolescents twice over 2–3 months and found that the 15‐item version (INQ‐15) did not fit without modification. TB and PB scales correlated with concurrent and later suicide ideation and lifetime suicide attempt history. The latent PB factor was associated with concurrent and later ideation controlling for TB, age, gender, depressive symptoms, binge drinking, and peer victimization. Suicide ideation and binge drinking were independently related to attempt history. Assessing and intervening on PB and binge drinking may be promising approaches to suicide prevention with community adolescents.     

Factor Composition of the Suicide Intent Scale

An exploratory analysis of the Suicide Intent Scale was performed on a sample of 98 psychiatric inpatients who had made suicide attempts. The factor analysis was performed using a method for polychotomous data, and resulted in a two-factor solution. The Lethal Intent factor contained items pertaining to the subjective level of lethal intent, while the Planning factor contained items largely related to objective planning for the attempt. Preliminary analysis of these factors suggest that the Suicide Intent Scale can be used to evaluate two separate aspects of suicidal behavior.     

Trajectories of Depressive Symptoms and Externalizing Behaviors across Adolescence: Associations with Histories of Suicide Attempt and Ideation in Early Adulthood

We examined associations between adolescent problem trajectories and suicide risk outcomes in 361 community participants. Depressive symptoms (self‐report) and externalizing behaviors (parent report) were assessed six times from grades 5 to 10. Parallel process linear growth curves indicated that lifetime suicide attempt history assessed to age 25 was associated with higher intercept (grade 5) and slope (increases from grades 5 to 10) of depressive symptoms and higher slope of externalizing behaviors. Both problem intercepts predicted suicidal ideation at ages 18 to 25 years. Adolescent depressive and externalizing symptom trajectories showed independent associations with suicide risk. Preventive intervention that occurs prior to the developmental period in which suicidal thoughts and behaviors show peak prevalence is expected to prevent suicide.