Psychometric properties and diagnostic capacity of the Scale of Resilience to Suicide Attempts (SRSA-18)

Abstract

Objective: Early detection of suicide attempts remains a handicap for suicide prevention. Most studies have focused on risk factors, but few have assessed protective factors that promote resilient outcomes, especially in subpopulations vulnerable to suicide re-attempts. This study aims to create and adapt a new Scale of Resilience to Suicide Attempts (SRSA), and to analyse its predictive validity and diagnostic capacity for the detection of suicide re-attempts at six months in people who have made a previous attempt. Design and main outcome measures: The psychometric properties and diagnostic capacity of the resulting SRSA-18 scale were assessed in 229 persons (where 133–58.1% were women, aged 18- to 76-year old) who had made a previous suicide attempt. Results: Factor analyses (AFE and AFC) yielded a three-dimensional structure with excellent goodness-of-fit indices RMSEA, high levels of reliability and adequate convergent validity with the Suicide Resilience Inventory-25 (SRI-25) scale. Additionally, the SRSA-18 has significant diagnostic power on suicide re-attempts across months of follow-up. Conclusion: Reliable and valid protective factor-based instruments for the detection of future suicide re-attempts may help in the prevention of suicide-associated mortality in specific clinical subpopulations.