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Related Experiment Videos

Does Beck's Hopelessness Scale really measure several components?

A M Aish1, D Wasserman, E S Renberg

  • 1National Swedish Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention of Mental Ill-Health, Department of Public Health Services, Karolinska Institute, WHO Collaborating Centre, Stockholm.

Psychological Medicine
|March 10, 2001
PubMed
Summary

Beck's Hopelessness Scale may be significantly shortened. A four-item version demonstrated an excellent fit, suggesting a single underlying factor for measuring hopelessness and predicting suicidal behavior.

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Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Psychometrics
  • Clinical Psychology

Background:

  • Hopelessness is a key predictor of suicidal behavior.
  • Beck's Hopelessness Scale (BHS) was developed to measure hopelessness.
  • Previous analyses suggest the BHS has affective, motivational, and cognitive components.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To test the hypothesized factorial structures of the BHS.
  • To investigate the psychometric properties of BHS items.
  • To determine the optimal factor structure for measuring hopelessness.

Main Methods:

  • Confirmatory factor analyses (LISREL) were conducted.
  • Data from 324 suicide attempters in Sweden were analyzed.
  • Psychometric properties of individual items were examined.

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Main Results:

  • Neither three- nor two-factor models adequately fitted the data.
  • A one-factor model, combining affective, motivational, and cognitive items, provided a sufficient explanation.
  • Variants of the one-factor model ranged from four to 15 items.

Conclusions:

  • Most items (15) on the BHS appear to measure a single factor.
  • The BHS could potentially be reduced in item count.
  • A four-item scale showed an excellent fit, capturing perceptions of the future.