Predictive and Concurrent Validity of the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire Among American Indian Adolescents

The Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire (Junior High School Version) can be used to identify young people who may be at risk for attemping suicide, since this questionnaire focuses on suicidal ideation, a major risk factor for attempted suicide. A suicide attempt cluster an an American Indian boarding school provided the unique opportunity to examine the performance of this scale in a group of American Indian high school students who had taken the questionnaire approximately 2 months prior to the outbreak of suicide attempts. The scale proved to be an excellent predictor of future suicide attempts when compared to other measures of distress: anxiety, depression, & alcohol use. The questionnaire was an effective screen for suicide risk in this population. (20 refs.)