title: Psychometric properties of a suicide screen for adjudicated youth in residential care.
abstract: There is a need to efficiently and effectively screen adjudicated youth residing within the juvenile justice system for suicide proneness. Accordingly, in the current study, the psychometric properties of the Life Attitude Schedule: Short Form (LAS:S), a 24-item risk assessment for suicide proneness, were assessed using data from adjudicated youth residing in an alternative sentencing facility (n = 130). As predicted, statistically significant correlations were obtained between total LAS:S suicide proneness scores and reports of recent suicide ideation and hopelessness. Contrary to expectation, the previously reported 2-factor model for the LAS:S, with Factor 1 representing physical unhealthiness and Factor 2 representing psychological death, poorly fit the data. In adjudicated youth, we found that a single factor model derived from the 4 LAS:S subscales produced a better fit to the data than the 2-factor model. The death-related, self-related, injury-related, and negative health-related behaviors contained on the LAS:S shared common variance in these youth. A clinical implication is that practitioners can effectively use the total LAS:S score when screening adjudicated youth for suicide proneness.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama 36688-0002, USA. jlr@usouthal.edu
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Langhinrichsen-Rohling
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work, University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama 36688-0002, USA.
authors.forename: Kenneth
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hudson
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA.
authors.forename: Dorian A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Lamis
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work, University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama 36688-0002, USA.
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Carr
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001293:Attitude to Death; D005260:Female; D065026:Hope; D006801:Humans; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011329:Prisoners / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012114:Residential Treatment; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D059020:Suicidal Ideation; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D000092864:Suicide Prevention