THE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE SUICIDE IDEATION INVENTORY - DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION

We conducted two studies to develop and validate a brief self-report m easure for assessing the frequency of positive and negative thoughts r elated to suicidal behavior. Items on this new measure, the Positive a nd Negative Suicide Ideation inventory, were generated by undergraduat es. In Study 1, we administered a 20-item version of the inventory to 150 male and 300 female undergraduates and conducted an exploratory pr incipal axis factor analysis with varimax rotation. Two factors, Posit ive Ideation and Negative Ideation, were retained. In Study 2, we cond ucted a confirmatory factor analysis to validate the fit of the one-fa ctor and the oblique two-factor models to data from another sample of 84 men and 202 women. The oblique two-factor model provided an excelle nt fit to the sample data. We also examined preliminary evidence of co ncurrent and predictive validity. Over-all, these findings suggested t hat the inventory is a well-developed self-report measure for assessin g the frequency of positive and negative thoughts related to suicidal behavior.