This Article Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 0306624X08319418v1 53/4/385    most recent References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Perry, A. E. Articles by Olason, D. T. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Perry, A. E. Articles by Olason, D. T. Pubmed/NCBI databases Medline Plus Health Information Suicide Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

A New Psychometric Instrument Assessing Vulnerability to Risk of Suicide and Self-Harm Behaviour in Offenders

Suicide Concerns for Offenders in Prison Environment (SCOPE)

University of York, UK, aep4{at}york.ac.uk

Daniel T. Olason

University of Iceland, Reykjavik

This study aimed to develop a new psychometric instrument to assess vulnerability to risk of suicide and nonfatal self-harm behaviour in young adult male and female offenders. In total three studies were conducted to assess the psychometric properties of the new instrument using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis in different samples. Participants in all three studies included a total of 1,166 young adult offenders across six Her Majesty's Prisons. The new instrument, Suicide Concerns for Offenders in Prison Environment (SCOPE), contained 28 items scoring on two subscales. The factorial structure of the new instrument initially obtained with exploratory factor analysis was subsequently confirmed in a new sample. The internal consistency of the two subscales were acceptable but the test—retest reliability coefficients were moderate. Concurrent validation with the Beck Hopelessness Scale was acceptable and SCOPE showed the ability to discriminate between those at risk and those with no known history of attempted suicide and nonfatal self-harm behaviour ( p < 0.01).

Key Words: screening • suicide • self-harm • offenders

This version was published on August 1, 2009

International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, Vol. 53, No. 4, 385-400 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0306624X08319418


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?