Assessment tools of non-suicidal self-injury in adolescents 1990-2016: a systematic review

The purpose of this systematic review was to identify the instruments created or adapted to assess non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) among adolescents. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology was used. Two individual reviewers analyzed the psychometric properties of instruments published in English or Spanish from 1990 to 2016 considering standardized quality criteria. The PsycINFO, PubMed, ISI Web of Knowledge, Scopus, SciELO, ScienceDirect, and EBSCO databases were consulted. Eighteen studies that created or adapted 11 instruments were selected. Most were developed in the United States or Canada, and none were developed in Latin America. Several studies presented no evidence of the psychometric properties of their instruments. Seven of the 18 studies obtained at least one positive score. The Alexian Brothers Urge to Self-Injure Scale (ABUSI) and the Impulse, Self-harm, and Suicide Ideation Questionnaire for Adolescents (ISSIQ-A) obtained the highest positive scores. The limitation of this study is that only seven databases were employed for the literature search in English and Spanish. The reporting of the psychometric properties of NSSI instruments among adolescents should be improved, and adaptations to Latin American countries should be developed for international comparisons.