The positive and negative suicidal ideation inventory among portuguese adolescents: Factor structure and gender invariance

• Main Author: Brás, Marta
• Publication Date: 2024
• Other Authors: Cunha, Ana, Antunes, João, Carmo, Cláudia
• Format: Article
• Language: eng
• Source: Repositórios Científicos de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP)
• Download full: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/20708
• topic: Adolescents; Positive and negative suicidal ideation; Confirmatory factor analysis; Invariance

Suicide worldwide is an issue that needs to be addressed, and adolescents are an at-risk group. Assessing suicidal ideation is central to tackling the issue of suicide. The Positive and Negative Suicidal Ideation inventory is a widely validated measure of suicidal ideation, and yet, very little is known about its invariance across various groups. The present study aimed to adapt and test the PANSI’s structure in a Portuguese sample while testing its gender invariance. A total of 750 middle and high school students were recruited for the study, and data were collected on various suicide risk and protective factors, including the Portuguese-translated PANSI. Data were put through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Kaiser’s criterion and scree plot both extracted two factors (64.10% variance explained). Confirmatory factor analysis also supported the PANSI’s structure (TLI = 0.943). The PANSI showed good reliability (α ≥ 0.83) and good construct and discriminative validity. The PANSI also exhibited scalar, but not strict, invariance. Overall, these results were similar to previous versions of this scale. The PANSI is a reliable measure of suicide risk among Portuguese adolescents. Future studies should further replicate these results in other cultures and expand on them by testing for invariance across other demographic variables.