Suicide exposure experience screener for use in therapeutic settings: A validation report

A brief screener assessing experience of exposure to suicide for use in therapeutic settings is warranted. To examine the concurrent validity of such a screening tool, labeled as the Suicide Exposure Experience Screener (SEES), the associations of the two SEES items: (i) reported closeness with the person who died by suicide and (ii) perceived impact of suicide death with psychological distress are presented.

Five separate datasets comprising surveys from Australia, Canada, and the United States (N_combined  = 7782) were used to provide evidence of concurrent validity of closeness and impact of suicide exposure.

Overall, closeness and impact were significantly correlated with measures of global distress across five different datasets, showing small to medium effect sizes. Closeness and impact were also intercorrelated demonstrating a large effect size across all surveys. This report used cross-sectional data and comprised varied sample sizes across different datasets that influenced statistical significance of obtained effects and did not tease apart the roles of cumulative exposure of suicide and prolonged bereavement in experiencing global distress.

The SEES has clinical utility in determining psychological distress in bereaved individuals and is recommended for use in therapeutic settings.