Examining the Construct Validity of Experimental Suicide Images Among Young Adults

The purpose of this study was to validate and provide detailed norms on suicide images commonly used in experimental suicide research, and to examine whether appraisals of suicide images varied based on image features and prior suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs).

Young adults (N = 264) rated the extent to which images depicted someone "trying to kill themselves on purpose or who did kill themselves on purpose" (i.e., suicide ratings). Suicide ratings were examined descriptively and with bivariate and multivariable statistics.

Suicide images demonstrated construct validity at image and aggregate levels. Further, suicide images looked more like suicide than pleasant, neutral, and interpersonal violence images, bs ≥ 5.653, ts ≥ 52.505, ps < 0.001. Among suicide images, suicide ratings were higher for images without compared to with gore, b = 0.269, t = 7.714, p < 0.001, and for images depicting high lethality methods (e.g., hanging, firearm) compared to the grand mean of all methods, bs ≥ 0.235, ts ≥ 3.316, ps < 0.001. Suicide ratings of suicide images were not associated with prior STBs.

Using valid suicide images, like those tested in the current study, could improve behavioral methods designed to study processes related to STBs.