Besides personal socio-demographic information such as gender, age, education level, marital status, occupation, and religious status, the following instruments were used for the data collection.
The CES-D comprises 20 items, and employs four-point Likert scales, ranging from “rarely or none of the time” (0 point) to “most or all of the times” (3 points). The total score ranges from 0 to 60, in which a higher score indicates more severe depressive symptoms [7 (link)]. Generally, a total CES-D score of 16 or greater can be considered indicative of depression [17 ]. But the validity and psychometric properties of several items (e.g., Items 7, 15,17, 19 ) on the CES-D have been questioned by the researchers [18 (link)].
The Trait Anxiety Inventory (TAI) of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) (Spielberger, 1983) consists of 20 statements and is usually used to evaluate respondents’ general tendency to perceive situations as threatening [19 ]. The total score on the TAI ranges from 20 to 80 [20 (link)]. In the present study, the Cronbach’s alpha values for the TAI in suicide attempters and comparison residents were 0.903 and 0.852, respectively.
The Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) [21 ,22 (link)] is a 20-item tool designed to measure three major aspects of hopelessness: feelings about the future, loss of motivation, and expectations. The BHS is a 5-point Likert scale, with answers from 1 (complete match) to 5 (in complete opposition), and a total score between 20 and 100. The Cronbach’s alpha values for the BHS were 0.954 and 0.883, respectively, for suicide attempters and comparison residents in this study.
The CES-D comprises 20 items, and employs four-point Likert scales, ranging from “rarely or none of the time” (0 point) to “most or all of the times” (3 points). The total score ranges from 0 to 60, in which a higher score indicates more severe depressive symptoms [7 (link)]. Generally, a total CES-D score of 16 or greater can be considered indicative of depression [17 ]. But the validity and psychometric properties of several items (e.g., Items 7, 15,17, 19 ) on the CES-D have been questioned by the researchers [18 (link)].
The Trait Anxiety Inventory (TAI) of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) (Spielberger, 1983) consists of 20 statements and is usually used to evaluate respondents’ general tendency to perceive situations as threatening [19 ]. The total score on the TAI ranges from 20 to 80 [20 (link)]. In the present study, the Cronbach’s alpha values for the TAI in suicide attempters and comparison residents were 0.903 and 0.852, respectively.
The Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) [21 ,22 (link)] is a 20-item tool designed to measure three major aspects of hopelessness: feelings about the future, loss of motivation, and expectations. The BHS is a 5-point Likert scale, with answers from 1 (complete match) to 5 (in complete opposition), and a total score between 20 and 100. The Cronbach’s alpha values for the BHS were 0.954 and 0.883, respectively, for suicide attempters and comparison residents in this study.
Free full text: Click here
