Reliability And Validity Of Others-Rating Version Of Beck Hopelessness Scale In Rural Area

Background: Suicide as a major public health problem has been widespread concerned around the world. In most countries, suicide is one of the top ten causes of death, and in young people, suicide is one of the top three causes of death. The causes of suicide are complex and diverse, and hopelessness is one of the important risk factors for suicide. In suicide research, psychological autopsy is the most commonly used method, and the tools are still in the exploratory phase. The study can provide an effective tool for suicide research.Objective: This study seeks to amend Others-Rating Version of Beck Hopelessness Scale, test its reliability and validity and verify the scale by comparing the completed- suicide group and the control group. This study provides an effective evaluation tool for the research about the relationship between suicide and hopelessness.Methods: Selected the clusters of rural residents and completed- suicide rural residents from the city of ZhuangHe for the study. Steps were as follows: (1)Official Test Version of BHS was adjusted into Others- Rating Forecast Version of BHS. (2)By the 102 cases of the pre-test for rural residents, tested its reliability and validity. According to the result of item analysis, adjusted the inappropriate items. (3)By the 258 cases of the formal test for rural residents, according to the result of item analysis, deleted the inappropriate items. BHS-OR(Others- Rating Version of the Beck Hopelessness Scale)was finally constructed. (4)After four weeks, 52 cases were randomly selected from 258 cases of formal tests of rural residents for re-test. (5)By comparing the completed- suicide group and the control group, tested the discriminant validity of BHS-OR. (6)Tested the reliability and validity of BHS-OR. Results: (1)According to the result of item analysis of the pre-test, Critical Ratio of item 3,item 6, item 12,item 14and item 19 were lower than 3.0. Corrected item-total score correlation coefficient of item 3,item 6, item 12,item 14and item 19 were lower than 0.3. (2)According to the result of the pre-test, the Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.6926and the split-half reliability was 0.6921. (3)According to the result of the pre-test , Factor Analyses yielded six factors and these factors accounted for 62.749% of the variance. (4)According to the result of item analysis of the official test, Critical Ratio and corrected item-total score correlation coefficient of item 3, item 6and item 19 were below the standard of psychological measurement, so deleted them to form BHS-OR. (5)The reliability of BHS-OR: The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.8294. The Split-half reliability was 0.8117. The re-tested reliability was 0.616(P<0.01). (6)The validity of BHS-OR: Factor Analyses yielded five factors and these factors accounted for 60.998% of the variance. The criteria validity was 0.777(P<0.01). The score displayed significant difference in completed suicide group and the control group.Conclusions: The BHS-OR for a high degree of reliability and validity is in line with the requirements of psychometric. It can effectively rate the extent of hopelessness. BHS-OR can be used in suicide risk factors study and crisis intervention in the social cultural context of rural area in China.