Dissertations and Theses @ UNI
Availability
Open Access Thesis
Keywords
Suicidal behavior--Risk factors--Testing; Teenagers--Suicidal behavior; Youth--Suicidal behavior;
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to develop a self-report measure for assessing adolescent suicidal behavior. This measure, the Adolescent Reasons For Living (ARFL), was modeled after the adult Reasons For Living Inventory (RFL) developed by Linehan, Goodstein, Nielsen, and Chiles (1983). Psychiatric inpatients, high school students, and college undergraduates were participants in this study. The development of the new measure closely followed the guidelines offered by DeVellis (1991) for designing new measures. The final version of the ARFL contained 35 items that loaded on six factors. The coefficients alpha were high and satisfactory. Significant differences were found between the three samples. Related comparison t-tests showed that the psychiatric sample scored significantly higher than the high school sample on the Friendship-Related Concerns subscale and the Fear of Social Disapproval subscale. The undergraduate sample scored significantly higher than the high school sample on the Fear of Social Disapproval, the Fear of Suicide, and the Future Concerns subscales. For the combined sample, two subgroups were identified by using the Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire (SBQ) item, "Have you ever thought about or attempted to kill yourself?" The first subgroup consisted of those who rated this SBQ item as 0 = never or 1 = it was just a brief passing thought. This group was named the low suicidal group. The second group consisted of those who rated this SBQ item as 2 = I have had a plan at least once to commit suicide or 3 = I have attempted to kill myself, and really hoped to die. This group was named the high suicidal group. The low suicidal group scored significantly higher than the high suicidal group on all six ARFL subscales. In general, adolescents who present with high suicidal ideation and behavior may provide few reasons for living. Finally, evidence of convergent and discriminant validity were assessed for the ARFL by correlating the measure with related measures of suicidal behavior and a measure of general psychological distress. The implications, limitations, and direction for future research were also discussed.
Year of Submission
1995
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Department of Psychology
First Advisor
Augustine Osman
Second Advisor
Jane Wong
Third Advisor
M. Shelton Smith
Date Original
1995
Object Description
1 PDF file (98 leaves)
Copyright
©1995 Tricia M. Besett
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Besett, Tricia M., "Development and Initial Psychometric Properties of the Adolescent Reasons for Living Inventory (ARFL)" (1995). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 2074.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/2074
Comments
If you are the rightful copyright holder of this thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to scholarworks@uni.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.