Psychometric Adaptation of the Beck Hopelessness Scale as a Self-Rated Suicide Risk Screening Instrument Among Nigerian University Students

Abstract

Background: Globally, suicide is the most important cause of mortality among adolescents and young adults. The factor that correlates most significantly with suicide is hopelessness.

Objective: The aim is to explore the psychometric adaptation of the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) as a suicide risk evaluation tool among Nigerian university students.

Design: A total of 554 Nigerian students completed the BHS and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS). Suicide risk level among them was determined by interviewing them with the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview Suicidality module.

Results: Cronbach's alpha for the 16-item BHS was 0.87. It exhibited satisfactory concurrent validity with the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) Suicidality module and the subscales of the DASS among the students. The 2-factor model of the BHS-16 exhibited satisfactory indices of fitness (goodness of fit index = 0.930; parsimonious goodness of fit index = 0.601; comparative fit index = 0.934; incremental fit index = 0.936; Tucker-Lewis index = 0.910; root mean square error of approximation = 0.059; χ²/ df = 1.9). Receiver operating characteristics curve indicated that the best cutoff score for those categorized as high suicide risk was 7 (sensitivity 0.700, specificity 0.908, AUC = 0.897).

Conclusions: The BHS has satisfactory psychometric properties as a suicide risk screening tool among Nigerian university students.

Keywords: Beck Hopelessness Scale; Nigerian university students; sensitivity; specificity; suicide risk.