Journal of Adolescent Health
Volume 49, Issue 5 , Pages 532-537, November 2011

An Examination of the Validity of Retrospective Measures of Suicide Attempts in Youth

Paper presented at the American Association of Suicidology Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, April 2009.

  • James J. Mazza, Ph.D.

      Affiliations

    • College of Education, Educational Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
    • Corresponding Author InformationAddress correspondence to: James J. Mazza, Ph.D., College of Education, Educational Psychology, University of Washington, Box 353600, Seattle, WA 98195-3600
    • ,
  • Richard F. Catalano, Ph.D.

      Affiliations

    • Social Development Research Group, University of Washington School of Social Work, Seattle, Washington
    • ,
  • Robert D. Abbott, Ph.D.

      Affiliations

    • College of Education, Educational Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
    • ,
  • Kevin P. Haggerty, M.S.W.

      Affiliations

    • Social Development Research Group, University of Washington School of Social Work, Seattle, Washington

Received 3 August 2010; accepted 14 April 2011. published online 27 May 2011.

Abstract 

Purpose

This study used prospective data to investigate the validity of a retrospective measure of suicide attempts from four different perspectives.

Methods

Data were retrieved from 883 participants in the Raising Healthy Children project, a longitudinal study of youth recruited from a Pacific Northwest school district. The retrospective measure was collected when participants were 18–19 years of age and results were compared with measures of depressive symptoms collected prospectively.

Results

Results showed strong corroboration between retrospective reports of first suicide attempt and prospective measures of depression, with attempters experiencing significantly more depression than their nonattempting peers, t (df = 853) = 10.26, p < .001. In addition, within the attempter group, depression scores during the year of their reported first attempt were significantly higher than the average depression score across previous years, t (df = 67) = 3.01, p < .01.

Conclusions

Results from this study suggest that the reports of older adolescents regarding their suicide attempts are corroborated by their prospective reports of depression in childhood and earlier adolescence. Thus, there is support that retrospective measures of suicidal behavior, namely suicide attempts, may be a valid method of assessment.

Keywords: Suicide attempt, Retrospective, Youth

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 Richard F. Catalano is on the board of the Channing Bete Company, distributor of Guiding Good Choices ® and Supporting School Success ®. These programs were tested in the intervention described in this paper.

 The content of this paper is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding agencies.

PII: S1054-139X(11)00127-3

doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2011.04.009

Journal of Adolescent Health
Volume 49, Issue 5 , Pages 532-537, November 2011

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