Multimethod Assessment of Suicidality in Adolescent Psychiatric Inpatients: Preliminary Results

The agreement among multiple assessments of adolescent suicidal ideation & suicidal behaviour for adolescent psychiatric inpatients was examined, including pencil/paper checklists; structured & unstructured interviews; & adolescent, clinician, & parent reports. Suggestions are provided for the accurate & reliable assessment of suicidality in adolescence. Results revealed significantly different rates of suicidality across each instrument & poor to moderate agreement between similar measures of adolescent suicidal ideation & behaviour. Agreement between measures was generally best for boys, for older adolescents, & for assessments relying on a single informant. (25 refs)