Suicide concerns among pretrial detainees: validation of the Portuguese version of the SCOPE-2

This study aims to further test the psychometric properties of the Suicide Concerns for Offenders in the Prison Environment (SCOPE-2) in a sample of RP.The authors have carried out a confirmatory factor analysis to test the psychometric qualities of the SCOPE-2. The authors tested the originally proposed two-factor structure composed of two subscales: optimism and protective self-worth. Also, the authors examined internal consistency through Cronbach’s alphas. Convergent validity was tested by correlational analyses between SCOPE-2 subscales and the Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised and Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) total scores. Finally, the authors have tested known-groups validity by carrying out discriminant analysis by testing the SCOPE-2 subscales’ ability to predict belonging to a group with previous suicide attempts.The confirmatory factor analysis showed an acceptable model fit, even though the subscale “Protective self-worth” presented a less acceptable fit. The correlation analysis supported the convergent validity of the SCOPE-2. Both the “Optimism” and “Protective self-worth” subscales showed a positive correlation with the total scores of BSI. Finally, the Portuguese version of SCOPE-2 also showed known groups validity. Concretely, the “Optimism” scores revealed an acceptable predictive accuracy.This study embraces important contributions to the practice as it was the first study to validate a measure to assess vulnerability for suicide...

Source: Journal of Forensic Practice - October 17, 2023 Category: Forensic Medicine Authors: Joana Andrade Hugo Gomes Rui Gon çalves Andreia Castro-Rodrigues Source Type: research