Preliminary Validation And Application Of A Chinese Version Of The Acquired Capability For Suicide Scale-Fearlessness About Death

The Suicidal Interpersonal Psychology Theory suggests that the desire for suicide must be accompanied by the ability to commit suicide so that individuals can commit suicide.The Acquired Capability for Suicide Scale-Fearlessness About Death(ACSS-FAD)measures the core component of the ability to commit suicide,fearlessness of death.Preliminary validation of a Chinese version of the Acquired Capability for Suicide Scale-Fearlessness About Death(ACSS-FAD)and obtain more psychometric data.508 college students in Henan Province(201 men and 307 women).The Acquired Capability for Suicide Scale-Fearlessness About Death(ACSS-FAD),the Scale for Suicide Ideation(SSI),the Reasons for Living Inventory(RLI),the Death Anxiety Scale(DAS),the Centers for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale(CES-D),and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-Brief(STAI-B)were used as measuring tools,and then analyze ACSS-FAD,including factor structure,internal consistency,convergent validity,and discriminant validity;descriptive statistics based on this sample of college students’ acquired capability for suicide;analysis the relationship of fearlessness about death,depression,anxiety,death anxiety and suicidal fear.The main conclusions obtained in this study are as follows:First,the two-factor model achieved satisfactory model fitting.Second,the Acquired Capability for Suicide Scale-Fearlessness About Death(ACSS-FAD)has a good internal consistency(α = 0.78),convergent validity(negative correlations with fear of suicide,death anxiety,and trait anxiety),and discriminant validity(correlation with depression with the small correlation coefficient and no relation with suicidal ideation).Third,the overall score of ACSS-FAD was in the upper middle level,and there were significant gender differences(p < 0.05)and grade differences(p < 0.05).Forth,ACSS-FAD was negatively correlated with depression and anxiety,but not with suicidal ideation.Consequently,the Chinese version of ACSS-FAD has good psychometric characteristics and can be regarded as a promising tool for measuring college students’ fearlessness about death.