The revised Suicide Crisis Inventory-2 (SCI-2) in Chinese college students: Examining factor structure and validity

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Mental Health Assessment
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STB) are a significant concern among Chinese college students.
• The Suicide Crisis Inventory-2 (SCI-2) is a validated tool for assessing suicide crisis syndrome, an imminent warning sign of STB.
• Prior research has not explored the psychometric properties of the SCI-2 or its specific items related to STB in this population.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the psychometric properties of the SCI-2 in Chinese college students.
• To identify key SCI-2 items associated with STB using machine learning.
• To validate the SCI-2 as a tool for screening imminent suicide risk in this demographic.

Main Methods:

• Two studies involved a total of 11,620 Chinese college students.
• Study 1 utilized confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) to assess SCI-2 psychometric properties.
• Study 2 employed machine learning (tree-based models and SHAP values) to identify key SCI-2 predictors of STB.

Main Results:

• Both one-factor and five-factor models of the SCI-2 demonstrated acceptable fit for Chinese college students.
• The SCI-2 exhibited good internal consistency and convergent validity with STB and related criteria.
• Machine learning analysis highlighted entrapment and social withdrawal symptoms as significant predictors of STB.

Conclusions:

• The SCI-2 is a suitable instrument for assessing imminent suicide risk among Chinese college students.
• Symptoms related to entrapment and social withdrawal warrant particular attention in suicide risk assessments.
• The findings support the use of SCI-2 for early identification and intervention of STB in this population.